I was wondering where this town was until the third photo. The mural gives it away.
Another great photo! Thanks, Ed!
Yes, used to live in Richmond.
Really excellent! Thanks for posting.
Please tell me you took some color photographs of the magnificent windows.
Didn’t mean to be snarky, but I’ve driven to Callaway many times in my 60+ years.
One if my favorite locations.
Getting into Helen on the weekends proved to be a chore as to traffic. Most people avoided Helen during the Christmas holiday purchasing season.
PS. There was a great Vietnamese restaurant there back in the '70s.
Unfortunately, there are still way too many people shopping in Helen!
My favorite restaurant in today’s Helen is Spice 55 Thai and Sushi.
He was correct about the gold mining. There was mining in quite a few areas after Dahlonega became the first gold rush in the U.S.
I don’t think the tour guide made up anything, but it was slightly misspoken.
And yes, we’ve had property about 500-600 feet from the mining equipment you saw, for over 60 years. Just before the decision to Alp size the town.
I truly love Helen, but what I love most is the river flowing through town. I don’t love the two hour traffic jams in October!
Actually, I’m not. There was gold in north Georgia, and yes, it was in the present-day Helen area, as well as other areas in N Georgia. But Helen was founded in 1912, long after the gold rush, so it wasn’t a gold mining town. Helen was a logging town, and when the town was dying, the town came up with the Bavarian concept.
It was never a gold mining town - that’s Dahlonega, about 30-40 minutes further southwest.
Helen was a logging town. The town leaders thought up the Bavarian theme in the early 1960’s.