Sites of Geologic Interest: US 411 and Vicinity

From its intersection with I-75 near Cartersville, Georgia, US 411 travels north through the Great Valley, closely paralleling the Western Blue Ridge front and the Carters Dam fault. Many interesting sites are closely accessible, e.g.:

Holly Creek

North of Fort Mountain, Holly Creek exposes contact between Fort Mountain gneiss and Ocoee metawacke.
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Chatsworth Talc Mines

In the western base of Fort Mountain, talc has long been mined from a body of metamorphosed ultramafic rock. Like Soapstone Ridge, this area may have been quarried by native Americans for pre-ceramic bowl manufacture. If so, mining has destroyed the evidence.
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Fort Mountain

A short drive east of US 411, Fort Mountain State Park offers an overlook into the Ridge and Valley, and an enigmatic stone "wall" near its summit (as well as a few interesting rocks.)
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US 76 roadcut

Descending westward from the Blue Ridge toward the Ridge and Valley, US 76 cuts through iron- and sulfur-bearing rock similar to that visible at Carters Dam.
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Carters Dam

Carters Dam -- one of the newest major dams in Georgia, completed in the early 1970s -- impounds the Coosawatee River to form Carters Lake. James Dickey wrote the novel Deliverance based in part on his experiences canoeing the Coosawatee's demanding but now submerged whitewater.