Recreating the approach trail to the original southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail.
Over the past year, I have written several pieces about the former Dude Ranch and CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) camp that operated here in the 1930’s. This article includes a never before published archival survey map indicating the location of part of the CCC road leading from Mount Oglethorpe to the Dude Ranch, as well as excerpts from aerial photography of our area from 1949 and modern property maps.
I located a survey map of the South Boundary Greenbelt of Bent Tree that was drawn up in the 90’s by a local surveying firm. On the map, in the Greenbelt zone between homes along Little Hendricks Mountain Road and our southern border, a marking of the ‘Old CCC road from Oglethorpe Mountain to “Dude Ranch” ‘ shows a road that connects with a neighboring, non-Bent Tree property owner.
Immediately upon seeing the map, I reviewed the same location on the 1949 aerial photography of the exact spot where the road was marked as being. In the photo you can clearly see the entirety of the road as it stretches down from Mt. Oglethorpe and meanders its way down Hendrix Mountain. The road leaves Bent Tree property only to reconnect closer on Little Hendricks Mountain Rd closer to the Admin building. From there it makes its path to what is now the sixth fairway of Bent Tree Golf Course.
A point of interest, in a previous article that I had published in the echo, I had interviewed Lillie Mae Pendley. If you remember, her father, Vernie Champion, worked on the Dude Ranch up until it burned down in the early 50's. The land that the old CCC road passed through and still does, belongs to the Pendley family today. In fact, Lillie Mae’s daughter’s home sits just a few hundred yards away from the old road.
If finding the pieces of the puzzle: The alignment of the roads, maps, photography and oral histories - was challenging, by comparison, putting the pieces back together again was easy.
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