Kennesaw Mountain

Kennesaw Mountain is a mountain between Marietta and Kennesaw, Georgia, U.S., with a summit elevation of 1,808 feet (551 m). It is the highest point in the core (urban and suburban) metro Atlanta area, and fifth after further-north exurban counties are considered. The local terrain averages roughly 1,000 feet (300 m) AMSL.

The mountain has two summits:

"Big Kennesaw", where the modern-day parking area and scenic overlook are located

Little Kennesaw Mountain, where several light hiking trails and nature areas connect the mountains to the rest of the park

History

Kennesaw Mountain was originally a home to the mound builders from around 900 to around 1700 AD. Their descendants, the Creek people, were pushed out of Georgia by the Cherokee, who were then exiled by the United States and the state of Georgia on the Trail of Tears to the Oklahoma Territory during the Georgia Gold Rush.

In December 1832, Cobb County, where Kennesaw Mountain is located, was created. This was just short of a year of being in Cherokee "county", a territory that included all of northwest Georgia.

Kennesaw Mountain was the site of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain during the 1864 Atlanta campaign of the American Civil War, in which the Union forces of General William Tecumseh Sherman launched a misguided bloody frontal attack on the Confederate Army of Tennessee, commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston. Although a tactical defeat for the Union, the battle failed to turn back Sherman, who went on to take Atlanta, and then launched his March to the Sea.

Federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the first commissioner of Major League Baseball, was named after the battle, in which his father nearly lost his left leg.

The nearby city of Kennesaw, founded as Big Shanty, was renamed for the mountain after the war, although the mountain lies outside city limits. Kennesaw Mountain High School is another namesake.