City: Atlanta, GA

Category: Parks & Recreation

Telephone: (770) 732-5871

Description: About 18 miles west of Downtown, Sweetwater Creek State Park features a trail leading to the ruins of the New Manchester Manufacturing Company. During the Civil War the New Manchester textile mill supplied goods to the Confederacy. Not surprisingly, the Yankees burned it down and, as happened in Roswell, shipped the mostly women and children mill workers north out of the state. The trail goes through a forest that contains the factory ruins and the ruins of some old homesteads from the abandoned mill village, then proceeds along the banks of Sweetwater Creek to Sweetwater Falls. The half-mile walk to the falls is not an easy trek. You have to climb over boulders and up steep hills. You’ll walk about 3 miles if you hike to the ruins, the falls, and back. It costs $2 per car to get into this park, which is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The trails close daily at dark.