Q: I’m new to Cobb County and would like to know the names of all the mountains around Marietta.
—David Nall, Marietta
A: It's not exactly Colorado, but Cobb County is home to several small mountains, the most famous of which is Kennesaw Mountain, just northwest of Marietta Square, and site of a Civil War battle. At 1,808 feet, it's the highest point in metro Atlanta. There's also Sweat Mountain (which is the one with all the antennas on it, northeast of the Square), Pine Mountain (where Confederate Gen. Leonidas Polk was killed in June 1864), Lost Mountain (which is near the Paulding County line), Brushy Mountain (which is just south of Barrett Parkway), Little Kennesaw Mountain (which is next to its big brother), Blackjack Mountain (which is east of I-75, between Roswell and Allgood roads) and Vinings Mountain (which is also called Mount Wilkinson and is – surprise – near Vinings). You can probably climb Kennesaw Mountain faster than it took to get through Barrett Parkway traffic on Black Friday.
Q: There are rumors soaring about the nest on top of the bridge on Highway 53 at the Hall County line being that of an eagle. I have often seen large birds sitting on the nest and they certainly appear to be eagles. What do you think?
—Ken Duvall, Gainesville
A: Don't get your feathers riled up, but it's probably an osprey nest, said Jim Ozier, Georgia's eagle expert and the program manager for the Nongame Conservation Section of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources' Wildlife Resources Division. "We have never had an eagle's nest on a bridge or tower in Georgia, but it's possible."
Q: Talking Rock’s Daryl Aiken correctly pointed out that I didn’t mention why Georgia’s gnats don’t travel above the infamous Gnat Line in a recent column. He knows all about those pesky critters after working as a forester for 27 years while living in Bolingbroke, a small community just north of Macon, nestled between the I-75 and I-475 split and smack dab on the Gnat Line.
A: Aiken writes that the gnats reside below the Gnat Line, which follows basically the same path as the Fall Line, a geographical feature that runs from Columbus to Macon to Milledgeville to Augusta, "because they need the coarser soil that occurs below the Fall Line in order to reproduce." He said southerly winds will sometime blow them north of the line, but they can't breed in the denser red clay. As I wrote, the Fall Line was believed to be the shore of the Atlantic Ocean in the Mesozoic Era, which left South Georgia's soil more sandy than what's found in North Georgia. Bet you don't mind that red clay right now.
What do you want to know about Georgia?
If you’re new in town or have questions about this special place we call home, ask us! E-mail Andy Johnston at q&a@ajc.com.
About the Author
