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Elberton, Georgia is home to a myriad of historical landmarks and places of interest. Most of them are well documented and fairly easy to get to i.e., Old Dan Tucker's Grave, the exhumed corpse of the fated granite statue "Dutchy", etc. However, from time to time, one encounters a story of a marker that's off the beaten path and not so easily visited. One such place exists for me in Elberton. The site is called "Indian Rock" (or "Indian Mill" to some of the few who seem to know or remember it).
Indian Rock is the largest Native American artifact I have ever seen. As a boy, my love of indian artifacts was peaked by my father who not only loved to look for and discover them, but also made replicas and still does to this day. Finding my first arrowhead, or point, remains one of the highlights of my childhood. So when I heard about Indian Rock from a family member, I was intrigued to say the least.
So what exactly IS Indian Rock? It is a large boulder situated on the shore of Cold Water Creek. The area is largely undisturbed due to its difficulty to get to. What makes this boulder so special is its shape and historical use. It is known as one of the first "Mills" in Elbert County. The rock is concave at the bottom front and mushrooms to an overhanging lip above. Whether this is a natural occurance, I have no idea. Atop the rock is a hand carved pit maybe 12" in diameter and perhaps 6" deep. From the front of a pit, a trench was carved as a spillway over the lip. Historians have explained that this is a classic grinding mill created and used by Native Americans. They would have sat at the top over the pit and ground kernals of corn into cornmeal with a stone. The corn would then be pushed down the trench over the lip into the basket of an Indian standing below.
For years, a wagon road went through the area right by the stone. The old road is still there and can be followed from an area of shoals to the rock. Over time, other than a few hard-to-find newspaper articles, Indian Rock was pretty much forgotten.
If you are like me and can't resist being in the presence of such amazing and almost undisturbed history, then you will want to visit the place and climb to the top of the rock via a clump of trees in the back. To sit there over the pit where the Indians sat and worked is wonderful. To touch and feel the pit carved by human hands is humbling. I HAD to place a cache here.
Unfortunately, this wil not be a cache for everyone. I made the hide easy, but the hike to the rock is EXTREMEMLY difficult when done one of four legal ways. There is a much easier way to get there - Indian Rock Road, albeit undrivable, is an easy walk that takes one almost right to it, but is on private property and the landowners don't want us to use that route. So you must get there one of three ways 1. From the parking lot at the Hwy 368 (Anderson Hwy) bridge that crosses Cold Water Creek, walk the edge of the creek the whole way. You WILL have to cross water that is sloggy with deep mud. 2. (Safest) From the same parking area, staying yards from the shore, you can walk the woods and ridges to the site. This is Corps of Engineers land and foot traffic is welcome. 3. From Double Bridges Rd., park on the side of the road at the bridge and follow the creek from the opposite direction. I have made the hike from all three walking points. It CAN be done. However, this one is NOT for the faint of heart or for children. There are dangerous obstacles and should only be attempted by adults. 4. You can get there (or close) by boat. Put in from the ramp at the parking lot and follow upstream. Right now the water is too low to get any more than about .4 miles from the site in a small boat. If the lake level is above 473.5 feet I think that most small boats could make it all the way to the cache site.
You're looking for a medium sized plastic jar, the original contents of which are:
A log book, 2 pens, Lock De-Icer, 2 pk of ponchos, sting relief, light stick, headphone splitter thingy, an authentic 1992 U.S. 5 cent Nickel, 2 double A batteries.
So ... who's gonna be intirigued, tough, or obsessed enough for THIS adventure?
The find should be easy, although coords my be a hair off due to tree cover. The cache is within 25 yards of the landmark.
I forgot to take parking coords at the parking lot and will do so soon and post them here. However, it is easily found and accessed by following hwy 368 out of Elberton to the bridge that crosses Cold Water Creek. The lot is over the bridge on your right. Plenty of public free parking available.
Do you have it in you?
Congratulations to Harthunter and Bripod on a well deserved FTF!
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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