Brasstown Bald is the highest point in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is located in the northeastern part of the state in the Blue Ridge Mountains on the border between Towns and Union counties south of the city of Hiawassee. The mountain is known to the native Cherokee people as Enotah.[2]
Description
The name in English is derived from a mistaken translation of the term for the nearby Cherokee village of Brasstown, located along the upper Brasstown Creek (named in English from the same error) feeding the Hiawassee River.[3]
According to the two Georgia historical markers, the area surrounding Brasstown Bald was settled by the Cherokee people. English-speaking settlers derived the word "Brasstown" from a translation error of the Cherokee word for its village place. Settlers confused the word Itse'yĭ (meaning "New Green Place" or "Place of Fresh Green"), which the Cherokee used for their village, with Ûňtsaiyĭ ("brass"), and referred to the settlement as Brasstown. The Cherokee gave the locative name, Itse'yĭ, to several distinct areas in their territory, including an area nearby in what is considered present-day North Carolina.
According to Cherokee legend about Itse'yĭ, a great flood swept over the land. All the people died except a few Cherokee families who sought refuge in a giant canoe. The canoe ran aground at the summit of a forested mountain (now known as Enotah). As there was no wild game for the people to hunt and no place for them to plant crops, the Great Spirit killed all the trees on the top of the mountain so that the surviving people could plant crops. They continued planting and lived from their crops until the water subsided.[citation needed]
Other transliterated spellings of the Cherokee name for the mountain include Echia,Echoee,Etchowee, and Enotah.[citation needed]
The term "Bald" is common terminology in the southern Appalachians describing mountaintops that have 360-degree unobstructed views.
Former Georgia Supreme Court Judge Thomas S. Candler is memorialized with a stone monument at Brasstown Bald. It was erected in 1971 three months before he died in recognition of his efforts to support getting more visitors to the mountain and establishing a visitor center there for them.[5]
Distances to summit
From the northeast, starting at the intersection of Owl Creek Road and the Unicol Turnpike (concurrentGeorgia 17 and Georgia 75) near Mountain Scene, the climb is 8.5 miles (13.7 km) long, gaining 2,820 feet (860 m), an average 6.3% grade.
From the southeast, starting at the intersection of Georgia 180 and Georgia 17/75 near Sooky Gap, the climb is 8.3 miles (13.4 km) long, gaining 2,560 feet (780 m), an average of 5.8% grade.
From the west, starting at the intersection of Georgia 180 and Richard B. Russell Scenic Highway (Georgia 348) near Choestoe, the climb is 9.3 miles (15.0 km), gaining 2,940 feet (896 m), an average of 6.0% grade.
From the intersection of Route 180 and Route 180 Spur at Jacks Gap the climb is 2.9 miles (4.7 km) at an average gradient of 11.2%, (height gain: 1,720 feet (524 m)).
An additional route to the summit is the Wagon Train Trail, starting at Young Harris College. The trail is traditionally hiked by graduating students and their families on the evening before graduation; a vespers service is held at the summit.
Tour de Georgia
In the 2005 through 2008 editions of the Tour de Georgia, a long-distance bicycle race, Brasstown Bald was the site of an hors categorie "King of the Mountains stage" finish.
.jpg)
