While Atlanta has been a major tourist destination since the Civil War, travelers rarely encountered the rest of Georgia unless they were on their way to Florida. That meant scores of attractions, motels, restaurants and gas stations sprang up along the major and minor routes, all vying for their own piece of those Yankee dollars. In Lost Attractions of Georgia, author Tim Hollis introduces us to such defunct sights as Storyland and the Georgia Game Park, as well as now-extinct elements of popular attractions, including Six Flags Over Georgia, Rock City, Stone Mountain Park and others.

While Atlanta has been a major tourist destination since the Civil War, travelers rarely encountered the rest of Georgia unless they were on their way to Florida. That meant scores of attractions, motels, restaurants and gas stations sprang up along the major and minor routes, all vying for their own piece of those Yankee dollars. In Lost Attractions of Georgia, author Tim Hollis introduces us to such defunct sights as Storyland and the Georgia Game Park, as well as now-extinct elements of popular attractions, including Six Flags Over Georgia, Rock City, Stone Mountain Park and others.

For centuries, explorers and pioneers told of a place in Georgia where there was a gigantic mountain of solid granite resembling a great gray egg lying half-buried on a vast plain. In time, Stone Mountain, 15 miles east of Atlanta, became a local landmark. In 1915, it was decided that the mountains sheer north face would be a good spot to carve a lasting memorial to the lost cause of the Confederacy. This proved to be easier said than done. Before the project was completed, one of Georgias top tourist attractions was established around Stone Mountains base.

When Six Flags Over Georgia opened in June 1967, it became the first theme park in the Southeast. Although the park is best known today for its high-speed roller coasters, this book recaptures its earlier years when it was devoted to the various periods of Georgias history. Six Flags Over Georgia revisits such classic rides and attractions as the Log Jamboree, Tales of the Okefenokee, Jean Ribauts Adventure, the Krofft Puppet Theater, the Happy Motoring Freeway, and many others. It also explores how the parks focus changed and expanded over the decades and takes a look at some of its classic advertising and souvenirs.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is among the most visited national parks in the country, and countless attractions around its borders have tried for decades to siphon some of those valuable tourist dollars. From ersatz western towns and concrete dinosaurs to misplaced Florida-type attractions and celebrity theaters, you will find them all preserved in this book. Author Tim Hollis showcases those businesses that no longer exist, from Hill-Billy Village in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg's theme parks on the Tennessee side to the motels of Cherokee and Ghost Town in the Sky on the North Carolina side.

Six Flags Over Georgia at 50 is both a reference book and a walk down memory lane. It includes facts about the park, a timeline of attractions, and a dictionary of the attractions (both former and current) that have delighted park goers for five decades.

An anthology of fiction and nonfiction about Savannah