🎡 Attractions

Foxfire Museum & Appalachian Heritage Center

Mountain City, GA · North Georgia Mountains

About

This is the rare museum that grew out of a 1966 high school English class, when Rabun County students named their student-run magazine "Foxfire" after the glow-in-the-dark fungus and started interviewing their grandparents about cabin-building, moonshine and mountain medicine. Book royalties bought the land in 1974, and today you walk a half-mile trail through an eight-acre village of more than 20 relocated and reconstructed log buildings furnished with artifacts of Appalachian life from 1820 to 1940. Time your visit for live demonstrations and you might catch a blacksmith at the forge, a weaver at the loom or old-time music drifting between the cabins. Perched just below Black Rock Mountain State Park, it pairs naturally with a drive up to the state's highest overlooks.

Highlights

Born from the student-made Foxfire books and magazine20-plus relocated and reconstructed log cabinsHalf-mile trail through an eight-acre mountain villageLive blacksmithing, weaving and old-time musicSits just below Black Rock Mountain State Park

Getting there

98 Foxfire Lane, Mountain City, GA 30562

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