The Whittington House and the End of the Dude Ranch

For 40 years the Whittington Home occupied part of the land where the sixth hole of the Bent Tree golf course is.

Was this house the Whittington home/GladJoe Inn? It certainly was part of the Dude Ranch/CCC Headquarters

It started as a dream home built on a field at the base of the Appalachian Mountain range. In 1911, Charles H. Whittington, Cuban Consul for Atlanta, arrived in Tate, Georgia by train with all his furnishings from Atlanta. What a sight that must have been. He had purchased over 3,000 acres of the land that is now Bent Tree. He had dreams of being a cattle farmer here in the United States. His Aurora Stock Company had made a fortune in the cattle business in Cuba.

Immediately, trees were harvested from the mountain area and work began on a large house. One that held a 1,600 square foot living room with a fireplace that could easily hold an eight-foot log. Apart from being large and filled with conveniences, water was piped in directly through a gravity feed from a mountain stream. A thirty-gallon water heater provided hot water and gas lanterns provided the lights.

Starting with the second woman to the right, Mrs. Whittington, Emily, Charles and Gladys.

A building directly across the driveway was made as guest quarters and was named the Twin Oaks. In 1917 Charles was conscripted into the First World War. His wife and two daughters stayed behind to live in the palatial mountain residence. Up until the early 20s, the house had doubled as a summer hotel known as the GladJoe Inn. GladJoe took its name from the two Whittington daughters, Gladys and Emily Josephine.

Gladys Whittington

Emily Josephine Whittington

Unfortunately, a cholera outbreak and mountain lions decimated his livestock and his dreams were dashed. When Charles got back from the war, they moved and the home eventually was purchased by Sam Tate via the Georgia Marble Company.

In 1929, during the beginning of the Great Depression, Colonel Tate opened his 10,000-acre Tate Mountain Estates. It had a private lake, mountain lodge/hotel, Dude Ranch, and much more. It was the premier summer resort for Wealthy Atlantans.

The Dude Ranch was visited by people from all over the Southeastern United States in search of rugged horseback adventures. It was run by the enigmatic Blink Drummond, an amazing woman was was a champion equestrian, trick rider, and pistoleer.

A few years later, Col. Sam decided to house a Civilian Conservation Corps Camp at the Whittington property. Camp 1449/P-77 was opened in 1933. Two-thirds of the 200 men from the camp lived in two rows of tents between the barn and the mansion. One-third of the men lived in the loft of the barn.

The Twin Oaks served as quarters for the few military officers of the camp and Sam Tate’s surveyor, E.C. Perrow (father of Doctor Guerrant Perrow and grandfather of BT resident Janet Vardaman) lived in a nearby cabin.

The men built a dining hall and a recreation center that doubled as a dance hall once a month. They would routinely go to Marble City (Now Marble Hill) to pick up women to dance with and musicians for live music) The men dynamited roads up Hendrix Mountain to Mount Oglethorpe and helped to build road up Burnt Mountain. (some of their work may still be seen as retaining walls along one of our evacuation routes) For their education, Camp Superintendent Perrow would teach them mathematics, physics, mechanical engineering, French and other classes. (Mr. Perrow was a Harvard graduate as well as a noted historian of American folksongs) By 1934 the camp had relocated to Butler County and had left their mark in road construction and buildings. In 1935, the Georgia Marble Company advertised a reward for arson that had damaged the area of the Dude Ranch.

In 1937, a few members of the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club, including Maurice Abercrombie, carried the sign designating the Southern Terminus of the Appalachian Trail up from the Dude Ranch site.

Over the next two decades, a series of renters occupied the property. The Darnells, Milfords (who used the CCC mess hall as a dance hall), Waters and Evans family all lived at the property until December 24th of 1951. On that day, a fire swept over the property, and the barracks that doubled as a chicken house was destroyed.

Lillie Mae Pendley remembers that her father Vernie and other residents tried putting out the fires, but it all happened too fast.

(To read more about the Whittingtons, please click here.)

(To read more about Blink Drummond, please click here.)

(To read more about Camp 1449 - P-77, please click here.)

(To read more about Professor Eber Carle Perrow, please click here.)

(To read more about the Appalachian Trail, please click here.)