Research team south of Unicoi Gap, standing on the 200-year-old road. (L to R) Dr. Jacob McDonald, Brittany Mann, and Katelyn Comer. Photo: Alan Hall.
(Sautee)- The Sautee Nacoochee Community Association has announced a new research project to locate and map the Unicoi Turnpike in northeast Georgia.
In December Alan Hall, president of the SNCA Board of Directors initiated a collaboration with the University of North Georgia to find, digitize and map what is left of the Unicoi Turnpike in Georgia.
Starting earlier this month and working into July, Professor Jacob McDonald and two interns are using a variety of means to find, verify and map what is left of the old road.
The Unicoi Turnpike was the “first vehicular route to link East Tennessee, Western North Carolina and North Georgia with the head of navigation on the Savannah River System” (www.waymaking.com).
Hall says, “Much of the 200 plus year-old Unicoi Turnpike has vanished under plows and bulldozers, but important sections remain. ” “We hope to engage citizens to help us find, verify and map the remaining traces of the old road, ultimately through all of Georgia.”
Dr. McDonald is an assistant professor at the University of North Georgia Lewis F. Rogers Institute for Environmental and Spatial Analysis in Dahlonega. He chose two of his students, Brittany Mann and Katelyn
Comer, to do nine weeks of research on the project. The SNCA History Committee and the White County Historical Society are funding expenses for the interns and will provide research support.
The team began in Towns County at Unicoi Gap and are working their wayRsoutheast, doing ground-truthing “where data collected at a distance are confirmed by measurements made on location” (ww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov), interviews with local historians and property owners, and precisely mapping potential routes. Their findings will be used in conjunction with Lidar to compile maps of the trail.
Lidar, an acronym for Light Detection and Ranging, “is a remote sensing method that … allows scientists and mapping professionals to examine both natural and manmade environments with accuracy, precision, and flexibility” (https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/lidar.html).
At the completion of the project, the maps will be shared with the public via SNCA’s award-winning smartphone app The Heart & Heritage of the Northeast Georgia Mountains, and with Google Earth Pro, which anyone can download and use.
For additional information, contact SNCA at 706-878-3300 or email info@snca.org. The Sautee Nacoochee Community Association is a member-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located at 283 Hwy 255 in Sautee, Georgia. www.snca.org
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