02/20/09

Photo Gallery: McLemore Cove

Most of the pictures below are of Bailey's Crossroads, located in McLemore Cove. Bailey's Crossroads was a location involved in the War Between the States (Civil War).

About the cove:
A postcard-pretty valley nestled in the V formed by Lookout Mountain and Pigeon Mountain, the McLemore Cove Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. The steep limestone and sandstone walls of the mountains form a dramatic backdrop for a scenic drive through the cove. The area is almost exclusively agricultural, with small dairy farms taking up most of the land. At the southwest end of the cove is a portion of the picturesque 11,500-acre Mountain Cove Farm. Red cedars which thrive on the limestone soil here are profuse throughout the cove, particularly along West Cove Road, as indicated by the names of the natural features and landmarks: Cedar Grove Creek, Cedar Grove community, and Cedar Grove Church and Cemetery. Perhaps nowhere else in Georgia are so many cedars concentrated in such a small area.

The cove, which was named for Robert and John McLemore, sons of a white trader and a Cherokee mother, is just south of Chickamauga Battlefield. One of the Civil War battles took place at Davis Crossroads.

Near Cedar Grove Methodist Church, a large number of Union soldiers spent the night of September 17, 1863, immediately prior to the historic Battle of Chickamauga. Another antebellum structure is the 130-year-old, plantation-plain style farmhouse where the Hise family has lived for generations. It is located .5 mile south of Mt. Hermon Church on Hog Jowl Road. Most of the other old houses and buildings in the cove are not antebellum but date from the 1890s, when the railroad was built through the northern part of the cove.