About the Mountain
Flagg Mountain is the southernmost Appalachian peak over 1,000 feet and marks the start of the Pinhoti Trail, which stretches north to connect with the Appalachian Trail in Georgia.
At the summit stands a stone lookout tower, begun in 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC quarried stone right here on the mountain, so the tower itself is both history and geology you can touch.
The Fire Tower’s History
The Flagg Mountain tower was designed to be the centerpiece of a new state park. Construction began in 1935, but the Great Depression and later World War II halted work, and the park was never fully completed.
Originally, the tower walls contained large wooden timbers laid in a crisscross pattern between the stone blocks. A fire later damaged these timbers, and when repairs were made, the wood was replaced with inlaid stone. That’s why the walls now have their distinctive stone cross-pattern design.
The tower served as a fire lookout for the Alabama Forestry Commission until 1989, helping spot wildfires in Coosa County and the surrounding forests. After it was abandoned, the structure began to deteriorate until local volunteers and the Alabama Hiking Trail Society stepped in to restore it. Today, it stands as a landmark of both geology and history at the Gateway of the Appalachians.
The Flagg Mountain Quarry
The CCC opened a small quarry on the mountain to supply stone for the tower and shelters.
The rock was:
- Locally abundant – layers of sandstone and shale were exposed near the summit.
- Durable – sandstone is strong and weathers slowly, perfect for thick walls.
- Workable – could be shaped by hand tools.
CCC crews quarried, hauled, and stacked each block by hand. If you look closely at the tower walls, you’ll notice different stone colors and textures, showing they came from nearby outcrops instead of a uniform, distant quarry.
Rocks of Flagg Mountain
- Sandstone – gritty, tan to reddish, formed from ancient sand layers; strong and workable.
- Shale – flat, layered, usually gray or dark brown; formed from mud and silt.
- Quartz (and quartz-rich fragments) – white to clear crystals, sparkling in sunlight.
- Conglomerate (occasional) – pebbles cemented together; rare, but sometimes seen in the tower stones.
What to Look For in the Tower Walls
- Different colors (red, tan, gray, black).
- Textures (gritty sandstone vs. smoother shale).
- Quartz sparkles in the sunlight.
- Cross-bedding pattern, stonework, where timbers were replaced with rock after the fire.
- Layering or banding, showing the stone’s ancient sedimentary origin.
Logging Tasks
To log this EarthCache, please answer the following and send them to the cache owner:
- Look at the tower walls. Describe the type different rocks you see (their color, grain size, or texture).
- Look for the cross-bedding pattern in the walls. What does this pattern tell you about how the tower was repaired?
- Bonus history question: Why was the tower originally built, and why was its construction never fully completed?
Optional: Take a photo of yourself (or your GPS or a personal item) with the tower behind you. Please don’t include your answers in the photo.