Beautiful Toccoa, Georgia By John Hewitt
If you enjoy Historic Weekend Getaways, consider a visit to Toccoa. It’s just more than an hour’s drive from Atlanta or can be reached daily via AMRTAK from Atlanta’s historic Brookwood Station. Here’s a suggested itinerary to experience the best of Toccoa. For more information please call 706-886-2132.
Day 1
MORNING- Stop by the Welcome Center inside the historic AMTRAK train station that is also home to the Historical Society, the Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce and Currahee Military Museum. You will find brochures on local points of interest along with an extensive collection of local histroy, including a tribute to Band of Brothers, the HBO series on WWII paratroopers who trained at Camp Toccoa and Currahee Mountain.
LUNCH- Sosby’s Hotdogs
AFTERNOON- Spend the afternoon browsing the art galleries, boutiques and antique shops such as the Whistle Stop Antique Mall located in the old Gallant-Belk building or Dream Giver’s Gallery, where one will find unique and one-of-a-kind treasures of every description.
DINNER- Enjoy dinner at The Cornerstone Restaurant, with a suggested entre of New York strip and choices of side dishes. According to the chef ”the strip steak is the one item that customers rave most about.”
HOTEL OR INN- After dinner, take a two block walk and spend the night in the circa 1900 Simmons-Bond Inn, 20-room, classic revival, Queen Ann masterpiece.
Day 2
MORNING-Begin a gourment breakfast with freshly ground coffee, juices, and a choice of at least 20 varieties of tea. While the made-to-order egg entree is prepared, enjoy a fruit course such as broiled grapefruit, lemon poached pears or baked apples. Simmons-Bond Inn keeper Todd Cusato says, “Most folks think breakfast is over before we serve the last course. That would be a homemade pecan waffle, our famous French toast or strawberry pancakes.”
Once breakfast if finished, go back to that shady front-porch swing and plan a day of leisure. With most attractions being less than 20 minutes from dowtown, there is no reason to be rushed.
A five-minute drive will take visitors past the Old Toccoa Cemetery, which dates to the early 1800′s and then to breathtaking Toccoa Falls, which is 19 feet higher than Niagara, though not nearly as wide, and is located on the campus of the 100-year-old Toccoa Falls College. The falls is easily accessible by foot or wheelchair. Admission is $1.
LUNCH- Go back into town and have lunch at Shirley’s Soul (Sole) Food Cafe, recently featured on the Food Network in a series titled “Feasting on Asphalt: the South Shall Fry Again.” Shirley’s specializes in downhome Southern cuisine with a meat seasonal vegetables selection. Be prepared with answers to questions “cornbread or biscuit?” “onion or tomato?” And if in season “cantaloupe?” as these questions are asked of almost every guest as they rach for their drink of choice. One of Shirley’s most popular disihes is the cabbage casserole and “sweet tea to die for,” according to local resident Kay Morgan, who explains that “When you look around the dining room at Shirley’s it’s what one could imagine a table set by the Lord himself would look like. Every type of person, every color and every economic bracket is welcome.” Folks say you can’t leave Shirley’s without sampling her mouthwatering apple pie followed by the little known Southern ritual of palette cleansing with one of Shirley Combs’ homemade pickles. Not only does she feed the paying masses, after the paying customers leave at 2 p.m., Shirely and her staff opens the restaurant to serve the needy and homeless of the community because as Shirley says, “The Lord gave me a goal to feed everybody.”
AFTERNOON-Next take a 10-minute drive to Travelers Rest, an early plantation home built along the Tugaloo river in the late 1700′s and expanded in the 1830′s by “the richest man in the Tugaloo Valley,” according to the Georgia State parks Web site. the home was enlarged and became a stopover for early travelers seeking food and comfort as they made their way through this sparsely populated territory of Georgia’s foothills. The inn was often raided by neighboring bands of Cherokees fighting for land rights and searching for provisions to make their lives a bit more bearable.
DINNER- Herman’s BBQ Shack
HOTEL OR INN-Spend the evening swinging on the Inn’s spacious, column-lined front porch sipping tea with the innkeepers and visiting with guests. Experience the subtle simplicity of rural downtown living the way it was 100 years ago.
Toccoa Driving Tour
Home Of the Orginal Band of Brothers
If you enjoy Military History, consider a weekend getaway to Toccoa. It’s just more than an hour’s drive from Atlanta or can be reached daily via AMTRAK from Atlant’s historic Brookwood Station. Here’s a suggested itinerary to experience the best of Toccoa. For more information please call 706-886-2132 or visit www.toccoagachamber.com
Day 1
MORNING- Enjoy a light breakfast at the the Perk Up Cafe. Stop by the Welcome Center Inside the historic, renovated station that is also home to the Historical Society, the Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce, and Currahee Military Museum. In the Welcome Center you will find brochures on local points of interest.
In the museum you will find an extensive collection of local history, including a tribute to Band of Brothers, the HBO series on WWII paratroopers who trained at Camp Toccoa and Currahee Mountain. Here is the Camp Toccoa Driving Tour.
Stop 1: Toccoa Train Depot on Foreacre St. was built in the 1880′s when the railroad came through Toccoa. This building is the original; only the facing has been changed over the years. It played a major role in the Camp Toccoa story because most potential paratroopers and supplies arrived here. The troops had to walk six miles to Camp Toccoa.
Stop 2: Old USO Site on the corner of Alexander and Savannah Street was originally the Toccoa Women’s Club, but was changed to the USO during WWII. Paratrooper candidates who got passes into town came for dances, musicals, and othe entertainment to help ease the tension of intense training. In August of “42 alone, 14,000 troops visited the USO. Bob Hope performed for the 517th at Camp Toccoa in 1943. The site now houses the public library.
Stop 3: Historic Downtown Toccoa gives you the opportunity to picture Saturday night in town with citizens and soldiers crowding the streets and sidewalks.
Stop 4: Bus station at 111 South Sage Street offered the second most popular way for the paratroopers to travel. The building is now Royal Cleaners.
Stop 5: Highway 123/ Currahee St. was Ga. Highway 13 in the 40’s. Camp Toccoa was still a work in progress when the troops arrived and it had a small firing range. There was a ROTC range in Clemson. Whenever the men needed training with their weapons, they marched 40 miles east along this road and would spend several days on the firing range before marching back in Toccoa.
LUNCH- Sosebee’s
Stop 6: Sink Trail is named in honor of Colonel Robert F. Sink, born in North Carolina, graduated from West Point in 1927. In 1942, the Army gave Sink command of the 506th parachute Infantry Regiment. Sink turned down several promotions during the war so that he could stay with his regiment. The marker was dedicated in November 2000, and was attended by many former “Five-O-Sink” men along with his two daughters. The dirt road to the left goes to the top of Currahee Mountain. If you continue on Dick’s Hill Parkway you will see the Camp Toccoa marker on your left.
Stop 7: Camp Toccoa was originally a training site for the State Guard and was acquired by the federal government in 1942. It was used to train a new type of soldier, the Paratrooper. Turn left off Highway 123 (Old Ga. 13) onto Camp Drive. On the left is a long white building that is believed to be a former mess hall and the only remaining facility of Camp Toccoa. There were 500 officers and 5,000 men who began their rugged training in July 1942. When the 506th left for Fort Benning on Dec. 1st, there were only 140 officers and 1,600 men who survived the intense training. The 506th made several jumps around Currahee. Some men made enough jumps to be certified paratroopers, but the airfield here was not long enough for C-47s from which the men jumped. The jumps were discontinued until the men reached Fort Benning.
Stop 8: Airborne Monument is set on a concrete base that was part of the Camp Toccoa entrance. The base had vintage WWI tanks set on slabs on either side of the road. The monument is dedicated to the memory of the four airborne regiments that trained at the camp during its existence. The 506th and 501st served with the 101st Airborne in Europe. The 511th served in the south pacific with the 11th airborne division. The 517the became the 517th Combat Team because it contained not only parachute infantry companies, but also a company of engineers and a battery of artillery. They served in Italy and France. The left side of the monument has the end of a rifle barrel and a pair of jump boots. This represents the ever-decreasing number of parachute veterans living today.
Stop 9: Camp Toccoa Parade Field was used for training and regimental reviews. The area is now covered in Pines.
Stop 10: Camp Headquarters is located where Patterson Pump is now and was the site of the motor pool, fire station, warehouse, quartermasters, offices, camp headquarters, bowling alley and movie theater.
Stop 11: Camp Streets are still visible past the Parade Field and are marked by fire hydrants. This road was known as Camp Drive and concludes the driving tour. If you wish, return to stop 6 and travel to the top of Currahee on the Sink Trail. The men who trained here ran—“three miles up and three miles down.” The road is in fair condition for the first 2 miles, but rough near the top. If you are in a car, please use caution. There are several places to turn around if necessary, but the view from the top is breath taking.
DINNER- Qunicy’s
ACCOMODATIONS-Simmons Bond Inn Bed & Breakfast, Country Hearth Inn, Knights Inn, Toccoa Inn & Suites
Day 2
MORNING- Hike the Colonel Sink Trail-Currahee Mountain, as it is also known as, is actually the sight of a few famous movies, including Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan. A few 100 yards down the road from the monument is a marker, which Hanks contributed to mark the famed “Sink Trail.” It was at this spot where Col. Robert F. Sink led his troops on the grueling training runs up Currahee Mountain. Sink would later set himself apart as someone who could get his troops to do the improbable while training for battle. Inspired by a piece in Reader’s Digest that described a Japanese army battalion’s 100-mile, 72-hour march down the Malay Peninsula, Sink went a step further with his men. Col. Sink decided that his Second Battalion should march from Camp Toccoa to Atlanta — a distance of 118 miles. On the morning of Dec. 1, 1942, the battalion set out and completed the march in 33 hours and 30 minutes. A proud Col. Sink told an Atlanta news reporter that “not a man fell out; but, when they fell, they fell face forward.” “They were a special breed,” said Ward. “They were brothers, and they were the best.” And when you come to Toccoa, you learn how and why they stood alone.
LUNCH- Brother John’s Subs
AFTERNOON A five-minute drive will take visitors past the Toccoa City Cemetery, which dates to the early 1800’s. A veteran flag has been placed in honor of military men and women who have fought for this country. There is a site there with over 200 bricks commemorating soldiers from the Revolutionary War up until present day. It houses dozens of Confederate soldiers throughout the entire cemetery.
DINNER- Applebee’s
