Guidebooks are annoying. Just because some editor who doesn’t know me tells me which restaurant is the best or what attraction is a must-see doesn’t make it a must-see attraction. Sightseers’ Delight is dedicated to the weird, the quirky and the fun. After all, traveling is fun.
If it’s not, you’re doing it wrong.
All of the places highlighted in this ever-growing database are great. Sightseers’ Delight has visited them all. We think you should make a point to see every one of them. But, this is not a guidebook. Just a webpage to help you plan your next adventure.
On March 30, 1842, Crawford W. Long stepped into the history books when he used Ether as a surgical anesthesia. His legacy lives on at the museum that bears his name. The Crawford W. Long Museum in the Jackson County city of Jefferson, about 25 miles from Athens, opened in 1957. It reopened in January 2010 following an 18-month renovation.
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Floyd G. Hoard was the solicitor general of the Piedmont Judicial Circuit when he was killed on August 7, 1967, by a car bomb. He was known for aggressively prosecuting organized crime in the area. Local citizens dedicated the monument on the Historic Jackson County Courthouse grounds on April 19, 1997.
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The James Jackson Memorial in downtown Jefferson, Georgia, honors an American Revolution hero and general of the Georgia Militia. He is also the namesake of Jackson County, Georgia. Jackson served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He also served as the 23rd Governor of Georgia from 1798 to 1801. The Jackson County Bicentennial Committee dedicated the monument, which is on the grounds of the Historic Jackson County Courthouse, on May 11, 1996.
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The Dillard House is perhaps best-known for its seemingly endless southern cuisine and hospitality. Formerly a boarding house, the restaurant touts itself as one of the original farm-to-table restaurants in Georgia. The Dillard House continues to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner family-style daily. Its cuisine is adapted from recipes handed down from Dillard family members and chefs. Family owned and operated, The Dillard House offers 90 hotel rooms, four cottages and 20 rental cabins at Chalet Village.
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Lumpkin County built its now historic jail in 1884. It features jail cells on the building’s second floor. The sheriff or a deputy lived on the ground floor. The National Register of Historic Places added the building to its list in 1985. Inside, visitors can glimpse the jail’s iron cell doors and scribbles inmates on the cell walls as they passed the time.
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The 1836 Lumpkin County Courthouse in downtown Dahlonega, Ga., is home to the Dahlonega Gold Museum Historic Site. Located on the town square, the courthouse is the oldest surviving courthouse building in the state, serving in that capacity until 1965. The state park is a testament to the first major gold rush in the nation. The museum collection includes exhibits about how gold is mined, tools miners used and actual samples of gold. The building features wooden seats from 1889 and the judge’s chambers.
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Trahlyta was a Cherokee who lived in the North Georgia Mountains near what is today Dahlonega. According to legend, she drank from a nearby Fountain of Youth to maintain her renowned beauty. A warrior named Wahsega courted her, bus she rejected him. Upset by this, Wahsega kidnapped and imprisoned Trahlyta. Longing to see her home again, Trahlyta eventually died. Her last wish was to be buried in the mountain forests near her home. Today. a five-foot-tall pile of stones marks her grave. According to the historical marker at the site of her supposed grave, “custom arose among the Indians and later the Whites to drop stones, one for each passerby, on her grave for good fortune.” Highway department workers apparently twice tried to move the pile of rocks as part of road projects. But, both times at least one person was killed in the process.
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By the 1920s, apples were becoming an important crop in parts of the state, including Cornelia. Because of the crop diversification, Habersham County skirted the devastating effects of the boll weevil’s destruction of the cotton crop. In 1925, Southern Railway donated to the city a monument dedicated to the fruit that helped save their community. The seven-foot- tall, 5,200-pound apple statue was molded in Winchester, Va., and sits atop an eight-foot- tall concrete pedestal next to the train depot. The apple was dedicated on June 4, 1926, and a number of dignitaries, including U.S. Sen. Walter F. George attended the event. By the mid 1930s, the apple crop nearly spelled doom from the city, but the statue remained as a reminder of the city’s past.
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The Delta Flight Museum was established in 1995 and opened publicly in June 2014. Located in a pair of 1940s-era maintenance hangars, the museum is home fleet of rare vintage aircraft and artifacts from more than 40 airlines related to Delta. Among the artifacts is the Spirit of Delta, Delta’s first Boeing 767. Employees, retirees, and friends purchased and donated the plane to Delta in 1982.
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The Pace House in Vinings, Georgia, dates to after the Civil War. Before the war, Hardy Pace, operator of Pace’s Ferry, built his home in what was then called Vining’s Station. Federal troops, pursuing Confederate forces as they abandoned Smyrna, occupied Vining’s Station from July 5-17, 1864. Union Gen. William T. Sherman used Pace’s house as his headquarters and planned the siege of Atlanta. After federal troops left Vinings, the house served as a hospital for wounded soldiers during the Atlanta fighting, but because it was infected with disease, it was burned to the ground. Following the Civil War, Solomon Pace, Hardy Pace’s son, returned to find the homestead in ruins. Sometime between 1865 and 1874, he built a new home here, using whatever could be salvaged.
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