 The Town Green in Downtown Sam Burnham, Curator Crystal clear water has been bringing people to this spot for centuries. Evidence suggests the Cherokee and Mississippian peoples called this place home. Today the site is home to one of Georgia’s great small towns. Welcome to Cave Spring, population ≈ 1070 Cave Spring incorporated in 1832. That was two years before the county seat of Rome and five years before the state capital, Atlanta. But the official incorporation was just a recognition of a long established Cherokee community. In the following years the inhabitants would be led away on the Trail of Tears and white settlers would plant roots here. Like so many Georgia towns, Cave Spring would house wounded and sick soldiers of both armies during the Civil War. Makeshift hospitals in and around town were where men came to heal, convalesce, or die. Between the war and the removal, Cave Spring has much more than its share of ghost stories.  Local Businesses Lined Up at the Red Light  Georgia School for the Deaf The defining moment for the town came in 1847 when four pupils and one teacher met for the first time in a log cabin, founding what would become Georgia School for the Deaf. The school would become an economic and cultural engine for the town. In 1955 the school had 89 teachers. Students came from all over Georgia to be educated in numerous buildings on a sprawling campus. Most Cave Spring residents were bilingual, fluent in English and American Sign Language. Educational modifications have moved deaf students into traditional classrooms. Other educational opportunities have drawn students away from GSD. The school is now much smaller and struggles for funding but it still holds a special place in the hearts of Cave Spring residents. Many of the old campus buildings have found new life and many more are available for restoration and reuse.   Water Flows 24/7/365 The town is best known for the cave and it’s neighbor, the spring. These features anchor Rolater Park, a beautiful public green space. The cave is open for regular tours. It can seem a bit kitschy but there are impressive formations in that small cave. The spring provides pure award winning drinking water for anyone with a container, free of charge. Despite the crowds collecting the water, the vast majority of the spring’s produce flows into a pond and also a 1.5 acre swimming pool. If you’ve never had all the air sucked from your lungs in a fraction of a second, stand in the searing Georgia sun for about 10 minutes and then hop off into this pool. You’ll instantly know what I’m saying as your lounges empty, your body erupts in goose bumps, and your eyes try to pop out of their sockets. It’s kinda chilly.
 The Pond is Cool Enough to House Trout Year Round Some brave souls gather here on New Year’s Day to participate in a polar bear plunge. I’m not sure if the shock is as substantial as it is in the summer as I have never been that big of a fool before but I imagine it’s still pretty startling. Throughout the town you’ll find beautiful architecture. The houses, businesses, and the old school buildings offer an eclectic and diverse mix of styles and designs. Visit Cave Spring for antique shopping, dining, swimming, collecting drinking water, or take in one of GSD’s 8-man football games. You will enjoy the Big Cedar Arts & Crafts Fair. Their annual 4th of July and Christmas parades are community events that invoke a sense of small town nostalgia. They are both highly recommended. To complete the small town feel, you’ll also find a small post office, a local branch of the library system, a local grocery store, and a highly active volunteer fire department. Cave Spring is located in Floyd County, Southwest of Rome.  The Cave Entrance is Guarded By a Stone Castle
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 Welcome to Talking Rock Sam Burnham, Curator Sometimes you find a place that just grabs you. I first wandered into Talking Rock close to 20 years ago and I’ve been infatuated with it ever since. This is the epitome of a small town. Roughly 70 people live on the 0.2 square miles designated as the town of Talking Rock. The 1890 census, the first in town history, counted 141 residents. The number has never been that high since. Despite the low population the town has a fine creek side park. The park offers public restrooms and a covered picnic area as well as open air tables with charcoal grills. There’s a playground for the kids and lots of shade trees. It’s a beautiful setting with a good design. It’s the sort of place you want to visit and so people do. The business district, so to speak, features a row of businesses along the west side of Georgia 136. A parking area, a few train cars, and another small covered pavilion sit between the west side of 136 and the railroad tracks.  Talking Rock, Est. 1883, Population ≈ 71  The Park in Talking Rock  Moose and Annie Mercantile It’s a special feeling to hear a rooster crowing as you stand on the downtown sidewalk. There’s no overzealous HOA administrator dragging out some draconian zoning ordinance. There’s just the call to poultry prayer echoing through town as you admire the regulation horseshoe pits outside the local woodworking shop. Yes, there’s a woodworking shop right downtown. There are antique and vintage stores and Town Hall. The old school is preserved as a museum. A red caboose welcomes you to town. A sign for the Tater Patch Players suggests there’s a theatre troupe in town. Although this year’s event is cancelled do to the COVID, the annual Heritage Days festival is celebrated each fall. What you’re seeing is a complex culture. You can’t find this just anywhere. Fancy facilities and large population can’t guarantee such a culture. This is born out of a sense of place, civic pride, and a love of home.  Regulation Horseshoe Pits Outside the Woodworking Shop Downtown  The Old Talking Rock School There are plans in the works to open a craft brewery in town. This could attract some outside attention and bring money into the local economy. Hopefully it will do so without destroying the peace and tranquility this town offers visitors. While a short drive to Jasper is needed to get necessities such as gas, groceries, and household goods, the balance here is delicate and even a little development could wreck it. A visit to Talking Rock is just a small detour off the Zell Miller Parkway between Atlanta and Blue Ridge. It is well worth the time. Go visit, shop, look around, breathe it in. But tread lightly. It would not take many newcomers to ruin this place. There aren’t many like it.  Little Free Library With Succulents  The Safe Haven of the Briar Patch Sam Burnham, Curator Complex times call for complex solutions to complex problems. And so Disney now faces a choice to either re-theme a fan favorite or capitalize on an opportunity to do some of their best storytelling ever. Disney’s Splash Mountain is a cornerstone of their Magic Kingdom parks in Florida, California, and Japan, Based on the controversial Song of the South film (1946) that was based on the Uncle Remus stories of Georgia author Joel Chandler Harris. The reactions to the announcement from both sides have been to usual crossfire of “tear down racism” and “leave history alone.” But the cultural significance of the moment is lost in between those simplistic points. The stories of Br’er Rabbit and his neighbors are steeped in the history of the South and also West Africa, Harris was abandoned by his unwed father shortly after his birth and raised by his mother before dropping out of school in his early teens, He spent years in slave cabins learning the stories and perfecting the dialect from the men and women who toiled on Turnwold Plantation bear Eatonton where he lived while apprenticing with a newspaper. His own humble origins drew him to the enslaved people and made him want to relate with them. He wanted to share the oral tradition of enslaved people to "preserve in permanent shape those curious mementoes of a period that will no doubt be sadly misrepresented by historians of the future."  The View From the Top, Above the Briar Patch The dialect, stories, clothing, songs, traditions, and culture that once spanned the South are now diminished to a few hundred people on the coast of Georgia. Their stories are presently hidden in plain sight on one of the most popular rides in the Happiest Place on Earth. Disney needs to do a risk vs reward assessment. What do they stand to lose vs what they stand to gain? Changing the theme of Splash Mountain would pacify calls for change and be a benign step to creating new entertainment opportunities. But at what cost? Should thet bury forever the folk heroes of the oral tradition of enslaved people? Disney has the resources, the audience, and the machinery in place to do something so much greater. Disney should partner with The Wren’s Nest in Atlanta and The Uncle Remus Museum in Eatonton to make a film that celebrates these narratives. Show their audience who Br’er Rabbit is. Shift away from the live action portions of Song of the South that people find problematic. Focus on the characters who appear in the ride, the subjects who make up a fable tradition as rich as Aesop’s. Give film audiences and park visitors an experience with the wit and wisdom that these stories celebrate.  The Triumphant Finale Provide a space outside the ride for authentic storytellers to share the narratives for park visitors. Present these stories for a mainstream audience in a way that educates and entertains. Use the queue line to expand on the stories. They could even tie in scheduled ring shouter performances or other appropriate cultural demonstrations in that space. The possibilities are endless. Make it culturally appropriate, make it historically accurate. Tell the story. If racism and poor cultural representation are the stubborn stumps we can’t dislodge, Splash Mountain can be a stick of dynamite to loosen things up a bit. Do the right thing, Disney. Do not bulldoze the Briar Patch. Elevate the king of that briar patch. Tell his story and those of his neighbors with the help of people who know them best. Don’t sweep him into obscurity. Tell an even bigger story, the right story, the real story. |
Sam B.Historian, self-proclaimed gentleman, agrarian-at-heart, & curator extraordinaire 
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