Track Rock is located in the Track Rock Gap Archaeological Area (9Un367) in the Brasstown Ranger District of the

Chattahoochee National Forest The Chattahoochee River forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida - Georgia border. It is a tributary of the Apalachicola River, a relatively short river formed by the confluence of the Chattah ...

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 ...

. This area contains preserved

petroglyphs A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

of ancient Native American origin that resemble animal and bird tracks, crosses, circles and human footprints. The Georgia Historical Marker placed there in 1988 says:

This area is one of the best-known of the petroglyph, or marked stone, sites in Georgia. The six table-sized soapstone boulders contain hundreds of symbols carved or pecked into their surface. Archaeologists have speculated dates for the figures from the Archaic Period (8,000 to 1,000 B.C.) to the
Cherokee Indians 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, th ...
who lived here until the 19th Century. No one knows the exact meaning of the symbols or glyphs which represent animals, birds, tracks and geometric figures. The earliest written account (1834) was by Dr. Matthew Stephenson, who was director of the U.S. Branch Mint in
Dahlonega The city of Dahlonega () is the county seat of Lumpkin County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 5,242, and in 2018 the population was estimated to be 6,884. Dahlonega is located at the north end of ...
. One of the favorite stories about Track Rock Gap was recorded by ethnographer
James Mooney James Mooney (February 10, 1861 – December 22, 1921) was an American ethnographer who lived for several years among the Cherokee. Known as "The Indian Man", he conducted major studies of Southeastern Indians, as well as of tribes on the G ...
who gathered Cherokee stories. The Cherokee called this site ''Datsu'nalasgun'ylu'' (where there are tracks) and ''Degayelun'ha'' (the printed or branded place). Cherokee stories include an explanation that hunters paused in the gap and amused themselves by carving the glyphs: the marks were made in a great hunt when the animals were driven through the gap, and that the tracks were made when the animals were leaving the great canoe after a flood almost destroyed the world and while the earth and rocks were soft.

In 1867, conservationist

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the National Parks", was an influential Scottish-American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologist ...

traveled nearby and met a mountaineer who said, "It is called Track Gap ... from the great number of tracks in the rocks – bird tracks, bar tracks, hoss tracks, men tracks, all in the solid rock as if it had been mud."Muir, John, 1916, ''A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf''. There is a gravel parking lot at Track Rock; the site is also accessible via the Arkaquah Trail. Track Rock Gap Archaeological Area is under consideration for listing on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

, reference number 76002336, but it is still pending.

References

External links

*Anonymous (nda
American Indian Partners Work to Protect Track Rock GapChattahoochee-Oconee National Forests
USDA Forest Service, Gainesville, Georgia. *Anonymous (ndb
Track Rock Gap rock art siteChattahoochee-Oconee National Forests
USDA Forest Service, Gainesville, Georgia. *Anonymous (2004
Roadside Georgia
web page. *Edwards, L. (2001
The Georgia Botanical Society
*Loubser, J. (201
"The Stone-Walled Complex within Track Rock Gap, Union County, far northern Georgia"Society for Georgia Archaeology
Athens, Georgia. *Moya-Smith, S. (2012
"Forest Service, Native Community Seek to Protect Sacred Site"
''Indian Country Today''. *Wettstaed, J. (201
"Track Rock Gap site: a new vision of petroglyphs"Society for Georgia Archaeology
Athens, Georgia.
USDA Forest Service page
{{coords, 34.88207, N, 83.87791, W, display=title Archaeological sites in Georgia (U.S. state) Landmarks in Georgia (U.S. state) Protected areas of Union County, Georgia Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest Petroglyphs in Georgia (U.S. state)