Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Mountain City, Georgia

Mountain City is an incorporated town in Rabun County, Georgia, United States. The population was 829 at the 2000 census. The town straddles the Eastern Continental Divide in a deep gap in the Blue Ridge Mountain front. The gap allows U.S. Highway 441 to cross the range at an elevation of 2168 feet without the significant grade required by roadways at most other mountain passes along the Georgia Blue Ridge.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.8 square miles (4.6 km²), of which, 1.8 square miles (4.6 km²) of it is land and 0.56% is water. Mountain City was home to Chet Atkins during his adolescence, as a result of a near fatal asthma attack that prompted him to leave his home in Tennessee and live with his father. It was during this time that his interest in music, especially guitar, was honed.

Mountain City is also home to one of the most popular teenage camps, Camp Blue Ridge. Camp Blue Ridge is a Jewish-based camp for adolescents, located in the beautiful Blue Ridge mountains. Teens attend Camp Blue Ridge during the summer months of June–August, and come from populated southern states, such as Florida and Georgia, but there have been a lot of campers from far away places, and various other countries.

Source: Internet