Travelers Rest and the Tugaloo Stone (Stephens County, Georgia)

 

I'm out in northeastern Georgia today getting a few hikes in, but with a little bit of downtime before my last one, which is a sunset hike, I decided to visit the nearby Travelers Rest State Historic Site. The main house was built between 1816 and 1825, as one of four facilities to lodge weary stagecoach travelers as they made their way between South Carolina and Tennessee along the newly constructed Unicoi Turnpike. The house was later expanded upon and additionally used as a base of operations for the new owner's various business interests, including a large cotton plantation.

Entering the large house, I'm struck by its size, measuring some 90 feet long with several bedrooms, studies, and a full dining area. After some chatting, the caretaker starts a short ten-minute educational film for me, which covers much of the history. The facility is about 85% original and has only been restored to its original condition to maintain it. It must have been quite a wonderful experience after a long travel day to arrive at such a fine establishment for dinner and rest.

While the house itself and its history are worth learning about, the real draw for me was a petroglyph stone that was supposedly found in 1796 by works constructing a chimney for the owner of the house that previously stood here. They claim to have found it along the nearby Tugaloo River and brought it to the house, where it now rests under a small wooden canopy just outside the large Travelers Rest house.

The stone is a large and volcanic in nature, with deep petroglyphs carved on all visible faces, including the narrow top and sides. Unfortunately, the images have been eroded down to the point of almost disappearing, though I did use the G-stretch app in an attempt to enhance the carved images. As you can see here, the results are somewhat disappointing. The app works much better on pictographs than on petroglyphs.

There seems to be some controversy about the origin of the stone. The informational placard suggests that it may be related to a piece treaty between the Cherokee and the Yuchis, but the exact age and original creators are something of a mystery. I have read one article, which provides some convincing evidence of the stone being of Viking origin. This hypothesis is largely based on detailed studies of the drawings and require the stone to be flipped 180° to allow the images to strongly resemble Viking long boats. We may never know. Whatever the history, this was a great way to spend a little time between hikes.