Colorado-based non-profit historic preservation group HistoriCorps is partnering with the Habersham County Historical Society and the Chattahoochee National Forest to preserve Cornelia’s Chenocetah Fire Lookout Tower.
The lookout tower, built in 1937 during the Works Progress Administration Program, employed Northeast Georgian farmers facing poverty during the great depression. For nearly 40 years, the tower served as a way to spot wildfires in the Chattahoochee National Forest and Lake Russel area.
Chenocetah was added to the National Historic Registry in the 1980s, but Habersham Historical Society Executive Director Audrey Davenport says that while it is a registered historic place, it needs professional restoration help.
“I was at Lake Russell hiking, and I went up to the tower with my two sisters and I said, ‘Wow, this building needs some work,'” Davenport tells Now Habersham. She says just a few days later, a woman at the Cornelia library connected her with HistoriCorps, who wanted to help preserve the tower.
The preservation group will camp out at the Lake Russell Campground the weeks of Jan. 9-14 and Jan. 16-21; Historicorps volunteers will commute to the tower and work together to help restore and preserve Chenocetah. The preservation will be done at no cost.
HistoriCorps staff members Ariel Clark and Erin Crooks will serve as Crew Leaders and will train volunteers in preserving the historic site. The Town of Mt. Airy will also be involved with the reception of HistoriCorps volunteers.
“The entire community, especially youth groups, are invited to visit the project and learn about the historic preservation while the project is ongoing,” says HistoriCorps Workforce Manager Liz Rice. “We encourage the community to warmly welcome HistoriCorps to Habersham County!”
Details regarding dates and times during which volunteers will be actively working on the project are to come. The preservation group encourages anyone interested in volunteering to contact HistoriCorps or the Habersham County Historical Society to get involved.
