When the bustle of a city slows, towns dissolve into abandoned buildings or return to woods and crumble into the North Georgia clay. In 1832, Auraria was one of the sites of the original American gold rush. The remains of numerous towns dot the landscape - pockets of life that were lost to fire or drowned by the water of civic works projects. Cassville was a booming educational and cultural epicenter until 1864. Allatoona found its identity as a railroad town. Author and professor Lisa M. Russell unearths the forgotten towns of North Georgia.

An archeologist reveals the mysterious world that disappeared under North Georgia’s man-made lakes in this fascinating history. North Georgia has more than forty lakes, and not one is natural. The state’s controversial decision to dam the region’s rivers for power and water supply changed the landscape forever. Lost communities, forgotten crossroads, dissolving racetracks and even entire towns disappeared, with remnants occasionally peeking up from the depths during times of extreme drought. The creation of Lake Lanier displaced more than seven hundred families. During the construction of Lake Chatuge, busloads of schoolboys were brought in to help disinter graves for the community’s cemetery relocation. Contractors clearing land for the development of Lake Hartwell met with seventy-eight-year-old Eliza Brock wielding a shotgun and warning the men off her property. Georgia historian and archeologist Lisa Russell dives into the history hidden beneath North Georgia’s lakes.

The textile era was born of a perfect storm. When North Georgia's red clay failed farmers and prices fell during Reconstruction, opportunities arose. Beginning in the 1880s, textile industries moved south. Mill owners enticed an entire workforce to leave their farms and move their families into modern mill villages, encased communities with stores, theaters, baseball teams, bands and schools. To some workers, mill village life was idyllic. They had work, recreation, education, shopping and a home with the modern conveniences of running water and electricity. Most importantly, they got a paycheck. But after the New Deal, workers started to see the raw deal they were getting from mill owners and rebelled. Strikes and economic changes began to erode the era of mill villages, and by the 1960s, mill village life was all but gone. Author Lisa Russell brings these once-vibrant communities back to life.

The author of Haunted North Georgia stalks the Civil War ghosts that populate the top of the Peach State. Though Georgia was spared the hard hand of war for two years, combat arrived with a vengeance in September 1863 with the Battle of Chickamauga in north Georgia. It was the second largest battle of the Civil War and has become one of America’s most haunted battlefields, producing a long history of bizarre paranormal events that continue today. From Sherman’s notorious march to Confederate general James Longstreet’s continued inhabitance of his postwar home, Georgia is haunted by many of those who fought in America’s deadliest war. Join author Jim Miles as he details the ghosts that still roam Georgia’s Civil War battlefields, hospitals, and antebellum homes. Includes photos! “He’s a connoisseur of Georgia’s paranormal related activity, having both visited nearly every site discussed in his series of Civil War Ghost titles . . . Miles has covered a lot of ground so far from the bustling cities to the small towns seemingly in the middle of nowhere. This daunting task takes an inside look to the culture and stories that those born in Georgia grow up hearing about and connect with.” —The Red & Black

North Georgia has been found to contain some of the most advanced indigenous cultures north of Mexico. Very little of what one reads about its Native American history, whether on historic markers or tourist brochures, is accurate.

The northern Georgia reaches were once home to the Cherokee Nation, who, as early as 1731, lived among the fertile lands and were linked to other native inhabitants by a meager trading path. The first European settlers and traders, arriving in 1797, introduced agriculture to the area, as families established homes and farms along the Georgia Road. Forestry thrived, necessitating mills and factories, while the poultry industry and high-quality cotton attracted waves of new settlers. The county's scenic splendor has drawn people away from urban centers, appealing to new residents and visitors with a relaxed and rural beauty. Today, Forsyth County proudly boasts of its recognized status as the nation's fastest growing county. Originally the home of significant amounts of gold, particularly through the Dahlonega Gold Belt and the Hall County Gold Belt, Forsyth County prospered as settlers quickly commanded the area. The costs may have outweighed the gains at times, however, and hardships befell the county through racial tension, economic trials, and extreme population fluctuations. Nevertheless, the county has persevered, and its people have shown both strength of character and spirit. Including new and unpublished data, this book explores the important advances in education, economy, and historic preservation in Forsyth County, as well as the tragic events related to the expulsion of the African-American population in 1912 and the Brotherhood Marches in 1987.

The definitive story of Georgia's role in the first U.S. gold rush In the 1820s a series of gold strikes from Virginia to Alabama caused such excitement that thousands of miners poured into the region. This southern gold rush, the first in U.S. history, reached Georgia with the discovery of the Dahlonega Gold Belt in 1829. The Georgia gold fields, however, lay in and around Cherokee territory. In 1830 the State of Georgia extended its authority over the area, and two years later the land was raffled off in a lottery. Although they resisted this land grab through the courts, the Cherokees were eventually driven west along the Trail of Tears into what is today northeastern Oklahoma. The gold rush era survived the Cherokees in Georgia by only a few years. The early 1840s saw a dramatic decline in the fortunes of the southern gold region. When word of a new gold strike in California reached the miners, they wasted no time in following the banished Indians westward. In fact, many Georgia twenty-niners became some of the first California forty-niners. Georgia's gold rush is now almost two centuries past, but the gold fever continues. Many residents still pan for gold, and every October during Gold Rush Days hundreds of latter-day prospectors relive the excitement of Georgia's great antebellum gold rush as they throng to the small mountain town of Dahlonega.