History of Cohutta Springs: Cohutta Springs (east)

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Cohutta Springs (east)

This blog includes two communities, both of which were known as Cohutta Springs. This post describes Cohutta Springs (east).

Cohutta Springs (east) is the location of an old historic mineral springs. It was a resort area featuring a hotel, boarding houses, cabins, and accessible mineral springs, thought to be of medicinal value. There were doctors and pharmacists there at various times. In the 1860s, Myra Inman, of Cleveland, Tennessee, summered there. Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, once stayed there. It is near the old Summerour Chapel. Later, there was Old Summerour Methodist Church; and now, Amazing Grace Baptist Church. The history of the area is evident in the names of the cemeteries and streets. Amazing Grace Baptist Church is now the only church on Summerour Church Road. The Summerour Methodist Cemetery is across from there, and Old Summerour Cemetery is just east/northeast of there, across the railroad tracks. Summerour Church Road runs into Cohutta Springs Road. Both roads intersect U.S. Highway 411 on the west.

Cohutta Springs Road leads to the old mineral springs area, which is now on private property. Cohutta Springs Conference Center, owned by the Georgia Cumberland Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, owns part of the land near there. The mill ruins may be on their property. The property on the south side of the road, where the old hotel ruins are, is owned by other neighbors.

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Blog Purpose

The Cohutta Springs History blog is meant to explore an old community in Murray County, Georgia, known as Cohutta Springs. The place name appears in at least four locations on old maps, and on some maps, actually appears prominently in two places at once. For that reason, we will sometimes distinguish between "Cohutta Springs, east" and "Cohutta Springs, west," though both of them appear on old maps simply as "Cohutta Springs." The original place name appears to belong with the mineral springs, located at the base of Grassy Mountain, northeast of the old Summerhour Chapel. The springs are at the dead end of Cohutta Springs Road, off of U.S. Highway 411. The post office opened a branch five miles west of the springs in 1836, at which time the second place name for Cohutta Springs appeared on old maps. Later maps designate the second "Cohutta Springs" as "Cohutta Springs P.O." The post office suspended mail delivery during the Civil War. Some years later, after that post office closed, another branch was opened west, but much nearer, the mineral springs, and the place name on maps followed it. The other two instances of "Cohutta Springs" as a place name are an additional site very near the springs, and an area north of the springs called "North Cohutta Springs."

Loss of the Old Mill

The old ruins of the mill and dance hall on the property of an old, historic mineral springs always interested me. I loved to visit the old mill when it was still standing. The diagonal timbers were pretty, I thought. The massive wooden beams of the mill were something to see. I first visited it as a child in the late sixties or early seventies. Even then, it was falling in. In the seventies, the Georgia Cumberland Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists bought the property and built a new conference center and lake a half-mile or so from the older ruins. The mill was in hazardous condition, already falling into the creek. No one then had the money to restore it. The new owners demolished it, but first, they created a history project to document all they could learn about the mill, mineral springs, and old resort. They spoke to neighbors and collected stories, deed histories, and a bit of genealogical information. The mill is now gone, but not forgotten.

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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Cohutta Springs (east)

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