Kennesaw Mountain is a mountain between Marietta and

Kennesaw Kennesaw is a suburban city northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, located within the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. Known from its original settlement in the 1830s until 1887 as Big Shanty, it became Kennesaw under its ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

with a summit elevation of . It is the highest point in the core (

urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

and suburban) metro Atlanta area, and fifth after further-north

exurb An exurb (or alternately: exurban area) is an area outside the typically denser inner suburban area, at the edge of a metropolitan area, which has some economic and commuting connection to the metro area, low housing density, and growth. It sh ...

an counties are considered. The local

terrain Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin wo ...

averages roughly 1,000 feet (300 m) AMSL. The mountain actually has two summits: * "Big Kennesaw", where the modern-day parking area and scenic overlook are located * Little Kennesaw Mountain, where several light

hiking Hiking is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century.AMATO, JOSEPH A. "Mind over Foot: Romantic Walking and Rambling." In ''On Foot: A Histor ...

trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. ...

s and nature areas connect the mountains to the rest of the park

History

Kennesaw Mountain was originally a home to the

mound builders A number of pre-Columbian cultures are collectively termed "Mound Builders". The term does not refer to a specific people or archaeological culture, but refers to the characteristic mound earthworks erected for an extended period of more than 5 ...

in the years 900 to 1700 AD. Their descendants, the

Creek people The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsCherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

, who were then exiled by the United States and the state of Georgia on the

Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was an ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of approximately 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850 by the United States government. As part of the Indian removal, members of the Cherokee, ...

to the Oklahoma Territory during the Georgia Gold Rush. In December 1832,

Cobb County Cobb County is a county in the U.S. state of Georgia, located in the Atlanta metropolitan area in the north central portion of the state. As of 2020 Census, the population was 766,149. Its county seat and largest city is Marietta, Georgia, Mar ...

, where Kennesaw Mountain is located, was created. This was just short of a year of being in Cherokee "county", a territory that included all of northwest Georgia. Kennesaw mountain cannon01

Summit of Kennesaw Mountain with afternoon thunderstorms

Kennesaw Mountain was the site of the

Battle of Kennesaw Mountain The Battle of Kennesaw Mountain was fought on June 27, 1864, during the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War. It was the most significant frontal assault launched by Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman against the Confederate Army of Tenne ...

during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, in which the Union forces of General

William Tecumseh Sherman William Tecumseh Sherman ( ; February 8, 1820February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, educator, and author. He served as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–1865), achieving recognition for his com ...

launched a bloody frontal attack on the

Confederate Army of Tennessee The Army of Tennessee was the principal Confederate army operating between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. It was formed in late 1862 and fought until the end of the war in 1865, participating in ...

, which was commanded by General

Joseph E. Johnston Joseph Eggleston Johnston (February 3, 1807 – March 21, 1891) was an American career army officer, serving with distinction in the United States Army during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and the Seminole Wars. After Virginia secede ...

. Federal judge

Kenesaw Mountain Landis Kenesaw Mountain Landis (; November 20, 1866 – November 25, 1944) was an American jurist who served as a United States federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and the first Commissioner of Baseball from 1920 until his death. He is remembered for his ...

, the first commissioner of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

, was named after the battle, in which his father nearly lost his left leg. The nearby city of Kennesaw, founded as

Big Shanty Kennesaw is a suburban city northwest of Atlanta in Cobb County, Georgia, United States, located within the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. Known from its original settlement in the 1830s until 1887 as Big Shanty, it became Kennesaw under its 1 ...

, was renamed for the mountain after the war, although the mountain lies outside city limits. Kennesaw Mountain High School is another

namesake A namesake is a person, geographic location, or other entity bearing the name of another. History The word is first attested around 1635, and probably comes from the phrase "for one's name's sake", which originates in English Bible translations ...

. The

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park Kennesaw Battlefield Park preserves a Civil War battleground of the Atlanta Campaign, and also contains Kennesaw Mountain. It is located at 900 Kennesaw Mountain Drive, between Marietta and Kennesaw, Georgia. The name "Kennesaw" derives from ...

was created on June 26, 1935. It was formerly a

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

camp.

Other information

At the base of the mountain, the park entrance hosts a new

interpretive center An interpretation centre, interpretive centre, or visitor interpretive centre is an institution for dissemination of knowledge of natural or cultural heritage. Interpretation centres are a kind of new-style museum, often associated with visitor c ...

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

, and numerous self-guided tour trails that document Union General

's " March to the Sea" during the Civil War. The road to the top is open

weekday The weekdays and weekend are the complementary parts of the week devoted to labour and rest, respectively. The legal weekdays (British English), or workweek (American English), is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. In most of t ...

s to cars, and on weekends only to park

bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

es, which offer transportation to visitors. The road is closed during and after

winter weather A winter storm is an event in which wind coincides with varieties of precipitation that only occur at freezing temperatures, such as snow, mixed snow and rain, or freezing rain. In temperate continental climates, these storms are not necessar ...

, as there is no

snow removal Snow removal or snow clearing is the job of removing snow after a snowfall to make travel easier and safer. This is done by both individual households and by governments and institutions. De-icing and anti-icing De-icing is defined as removal ...

. Kennesaw Mountain is also a major stopover location for several species of migrating

songbird A songbird is a bird belonging to the suborder Passeri of the perching birds (Passeriformes). Another name that is sometimes seen as the scientific or vernacular name is Oscines, from Latin ''oscen'', "songbird". The Passeriformes contains 5000 ...

s. There are more than 25 species of

warbler Various Passeriformes (perching birds) are commonly referred to as warblers. They are not necessarily closely related to one another, but share some characteristics, such as being fairly small, vocal, and insectivorous. Sylvioid warblers Th ...

s, including the rare

cerulean warbler The cerulean warbler (''Setophaga cerulea'') is a small songbird in the family Parulidae. It is a long-distance migrant, breeding in eastern North American hardwood forests. In the non-breeding season, it winters on the eastern slope of the And ...

. Several small radio antennas, which are atop the mountain near the summit, belong to the U.S. government and the government of Georgia. Originally on four separate

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

telephone pole A utility pole is a column or post typically made out of wood used to support overhead power lines and various other public utilities, such as electrical cable, fiber optic cable, and related equipment such as transformers and street lights. It ...

s, they were consolidated to a metal monopole around 2005. The

quonset hut A Quonset hut is a lightweight prefabricated structure of corrugated galvanized steel having a semi cylindrical cross-section. The design was developed in the United States, based on the Nissen hut introduced by the British during World War ...

s which house the

transmitter In electronics and telecommunications, a radio transmitter or just transmitter is an electronic device which produces radio waves with an antenna. The transmitter itself generates a radio frequency alternating current, which is applied to the ...

s and other telecom equipment are painted solid green or brown to

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the b ...

them.

Power line An overhead power line is a structure used in electric power transmission and distribution to transmit electrical energy across large distances. It consists of one or more uninsulated electrical cables (commonly multiples of three for three-p ...

s are buried, and generators supply backup power in the event of a

power failure A power outage (also called a powercut, a power out, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, or a blackout) is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user. There are many causes of power failures in an electricity ...

. A stylized representation of Kennesaw Mountain's distinctive twin peaks is part of the logo for nearby

Kennesaw State University Kennesaw State University (KSU) is a public research university located in the state of Georgia with two different campuses in the Atlanta metropolitan area, one in Kennesaw and the other in Marietta on a combined of land. The school was fou ...

. Marietta's

Kennestone Hospital Wellstar Kennestone Hospital (formerly WellStar Kennestone Regional Medical Center) is a major hospital located in Marietta, Georgia, serving most of northern and central Cobb County, Georgia. Kennestone Hospital opened in June 1950 as a 105-bed ...

takes its name from the nearby Kennesaw Mountain and the more distant

Stone Mountain Stone Mountain is a quartz monzonite dome Inselberg, monadnock and the site of Stone Mountain Park, east of Atlanta, Georgia. Outside the park is the small city of Stone Mountain, Georgia. The park is the most visited tourist site in the state o ...

. On September 1, 2016, Adam Young released a ten-track instrumental e-album called Corduroy Road, based on Sherman's March to the Sea. The fifth track was called Kennesaw Mountain.

Footnotes

External links

Kennesaw Mountain Park Timeline

Friends of Kennesaw Mountain
{{Authority control Battlefields of the Western Theater of the American Civil War Inselbergs of North America Ridges of Georgia (U.S. state) Kennesaw, Georgia Landforms of Cobb County, Georgia

History

Other information

Footnotes

Further reading

External links