I am over forty years old. I was born about a mile from where I currently reside. I was raised east of Atlanta barely in Rockdale county in an area that my wife likes to call McConBridge, since it lies between, and almost equidistance from, Conyers, McDonough, and Stockbridge. Although they were from small towns in Georgia (McDonough and Albany), my parents graduated from two Atlanta universities. Both were a little blinded by the city lights. But neither could entirely leave their rural upbringings, so I was raised in the countryside. But, ever since I went to college in the big city of Atlanta, I have not been back to stay in the wilderness, except briefly.
As a student and as a recent graduate, I did a lot of exploring on foot. Riding my bike for transportation and skateboarding for entertainment also afforded me lots of exploration time. During these times, I was aware of historical monuments, parks, and markers. Some of these I even read and pondered. But I don't think that I ever connected to them.
Recently I began travelling between East Point and Decatur everyday, twice a day. Along that route I always passed two historic markers, "Wheeler Delays Blair" and "Sweeny Marches South." I often wondered how many of these markers are in Atlanta, or even Georgia. I knew of other markers from the other places that I had lived or worked around Atlanta..near Little Five Points, Roswell, Virgina Highlands, Smyrna, Poncey Highlands, Marietta, Inman Park, Decatur, the By-way, Candler Park....and I even remembered the gist of some of them.
Somewhere along the way, I decided to document the markers that I saw, starting with the two that I passed so often. I was planning to start a group on Flikr and invite others to join in with pictures of their markers, in Atlanta, in Georgia, in other states, countries, etc. So I decided to investigate to see if there were groups on Flikr or websites or blogs etc. that had a similar purpose. The short answer is yes. Yes there are. And there are people doing the very things, or similar things, that I plan to do here on this blog.
But this is my path. And I plan to document it here. The journey has already begun.
My goal here is do document the historical markers that I discover, either by chance or by design. I plan on starting with the ones that are closest to me currently. The focus of most of the ones near me are of the US Civil War, specifically, the Battle of Atlanta. But there are other ones as well that I shall include as I encounter them. I would like to post the location and background, as known or understood, as well as any supporting information. I will include, where possible, a photograph of the marker and a photograph or two of the surrounding area. The markers and their photographs will be on a Google map of mine also.
I must acknowledge some of the sources for inspiration of this as well as websites that have provided a concise location of information.
My family, although rooted in McConBridge, has always travelled. Summer trips, spring break trips, christmas breaks, or anytime that we could squeeze it in. And we drove on our trips. So we saw lots of the local sites, and we stopped at most of them also. So I was aware, as I said before, of the historical markers and monuments, and parks from an early age. But the start of this current "bug" would have to be my repeated interaction with those two Georgia Historical Commission Markers mentioned above and my introduction to historicalmarkerdatabase.org and my interaction with one of the editors there. There is also an online data base of what appears to be a catalog of all the historical markers, with pictures and locations, in Georgia that will be immensely helpful. Already I have identified markers that I have overlooked, some of them only feet from were I was with another marker. There is another site that I recently found of one person's tracing of the Battle of Atlanta in modern times using the markers as reference.
I have no timeline for completing this quest. I have no boundaries either. Where ever I go and find a historical marker, there I will begin the documentation of it. I am sure that the scope or focus of this quest shall change with time. I have already changed my ideas for the set up of the blog and shall try to follow through, if feasible. I am no computer expert or web designer. I do no write nor understand code. I am using only the tools that I know are available in the manner that I understand their capabilities.
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