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October 13, 2026

Historic Armuchee Iron Bridge Closed For Repairs Through Thursday

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Photo taken by Eddie Douthitt

A historic iron bridge over Armuchee Creek in Floyd County is closed this week as crews replace its wooden deck.

Floyd County Public Works closed the single-lane bridge on Little Texas Valley Road beginning at 8 a.m. Monday, October 12. Repairs are expected to be completed by 4 p.m. Thursday, October 15, weather and construction conditions permitting.

The bridge is located between U.S. Highway 27, also known as Martha Berry Highway, and Scenic Road, near the Armuchee Post Office.

Motorists can use Scenic Road as an alternate route to and from Highway 27 North. Drivers should follow any posted detour signs and allow additional travel time.

No vehicles will be permitted to cross the bridge during the repairs.

October 13, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

Haunted Trolley Tours To Explore Rome’s Ghostly History This October

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Those looking for a little Halloween excitement can take a ride through Rome’s haunted past later this month as the Rome Area History Center presents its Haunted on Broad Trolley Tours.

October 5, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

A Bloodhound, A Bank Robbery And A Sheriff’s Bill From 1914

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A handwritten receipt shared last week on social media by the Chattooga County Historical Society provides a fascinating glimpse into law enforcement in Chattooga County more than a century ago — and connects with one of the county’s most dramatic crimes of the era.

The document is a sheriff’s voucher from 1914 associated with Chattooga County Sheriff M.W. Wimpee. Among the expenses listed is the cost of keeping and maintaining a bloodhound dog from June 17 through August 17, 1914.

The county was charged 25 cents per day for 62 days, bringing the total bill for keeping the dog to $15.50.

The bloodhound is an especially interesting part of the record because tracking dogs had played an important role earlier that year in the investigation of the Bank of Lyerly robbery.

September 29, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

Free Family Morning At Oak Hill To Highlight Martha Berry’s Famous Friends

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Families from across Northwest Georgia are invited to Oak Hill and The Martha Berry Museum in Rome next month for a free morning of hands-on history, activities and family learning.

September 28, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

When The Railroad Redrew The Map Of Chattooga County

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The communities we know today as Summerville, Lyerly and Menlo might look very different had railroad tracks been laid just a few miles in another direction.

When railroads finally arrived in Chattooga County during the late 1800s, they did much more than provide transportation. They determined where businesses opened, where people settled, which communities grew and, in some cases, which communities disappeared.

And at one point, the railroad nearly bypassed Summerville altogether.

September 21, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

From Lamplight To Long Distance: How Electricity And Telephones Changed Chattooga County

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Telephone operators at the Summerville Telephone Company on the final day of operator-assisted telephone service in 1960. Direct dialing began the following day. (Photo courtesy of Ben Bridges/Chattooga Photo History)

For people living in Chattooga County today, flipping a light switch or making a telephone call is so ordinary that little thought is given to either one.

But a little more than a century ago, both represented technologies that were beginning to fundamentally change everyday life.

There was a time when darkness meant lighting an oil lamp, when many homes drew their water from wells, and when making a long-distance telephone call in Chattooga County meant traveling into Summerville and going inside a local store.

The arrival of electricity and the telephone didn’t happen everywhere at once. The technologies spread gradually through mills, businesses and towns before becoming commonplace in homes throughout the county.

And when it came to electricity, Trion was among the first places in Chattooga County to enter the electrical age.

September 14, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

From Iron Ore To Coal — Chattooga County’s Mining Past

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Long before manufacturing became a major part of Chattooga County’s economy, people looked to the mountains and ridges surrounding the county for another source of economic development — minerals buried beneath the ground.

September 10, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

Museum Of LaFayette Seeks Local Cherokee Family Histories For New Exhibit

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The Museum of LaFayette is asking area residents to help document local Cherokee history as the museum prepares a new exhibit at the historic Chattooga Academy in LaFayette.

September 9, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

Historic District Hill Cemetery Project Nears Completion In Walker County

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A decade-long effort to preserve and honor an important piece of African American history in Walker County is nearing completion, with a formal dedication ceremony now scheduled for next month.

September 7, 2026

by Jimmy Holbrook

When Labor Unrest Turned Deadly In Trion: The Textile Strike Of 1934

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For generations of Chattooga County families, the textile mill at Trion was more than a place to work.

It was at the center of a community.

Families depended on the mill for their livelihoods. Generations worked there, and the history of Trion itself became inseparable from the history of textile manufacturing.

But during the depths of the Great Depression, tensions between textile workers and mill management were growing throughout the South.

In September 1934, those tensions reached Trion.

And on September 5, they turned deadly.

Two men — Deputy Sheriff W. M. “Milton” Hix and strike sympathizer J. B. Blalock — were fatally shot during a confrontation outside the Trion Cotton Mill.

The events in Trion were part of a much larger labor uprising that became known as the General Textile Strike of 1934, one of the largest labor disputes in American history and the largest labor protest the South had seen.