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October 4, 2007

Effort seeks to protect Rocky Face Ridge sites

By Eric Beavers

Preservation costs money and requires the cooperation of many groups, and the Whitfield County Historical Preservation Commission is making an effort to pool regional resources to protect Rocky Face Ridge.

Commission secretary Kevin McAuliff is working to organize a meeting between many groups including county officials, the Georgia Civil War Commission, the Civil War Preservation Trust, Georgia Battlefields Association, Civil War Round Table, area legislators and others.

The purpose of the meeting, McAuliff said, is to “identify points of interest and invite discussion of strategies for land and easement acquisition and for securing the necessary funding.”

McAuliff hopes the meeting can be set for sometime in late October or early November.

The funding to protect Rocky Face Ridge could come from several sources. As a drinking water watershed it could earn protection from the state Department of Natural Resources. As a viewshed seen by drivers along I-75, it could qualify for funds from the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT).

Representatives from the National Park Service have said the region houses “the largest intact collection of Civil War defenses in the nation,” McAuliff said. Some of the old earthen and stone fortifications are “pristine” and are still intact.

A transportation enhancement grant from the GDOT could net up to $1 million, but would require matching funds, McAuliff told commission members. While talking with representatives of the Civil War Preservation Trust, a national group, he learned they would consider furnishing 20 percent of the matching funds to assist in the acquisition and protection of property on Rocky Face Ridge.

“We’ve now moved from aspiration closer to the realm of reality,” he said.

Also during the meeting, commission members decried plans by Dalton Utilities to build a wastewater treatment plant at Mauldin’s Bottoms, which is at the base of Rocky Face Ridge and at the center of several important historic sites. A public hearing about the placement of the treatment plant is set for Monday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m., in the Judicial Building on King Street.

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