US-441 from Dillard to Black Rock Mountain

Dillard

Just south of the North Carolina border, the highway hamlet of Dillard (pop. 369) is a mini fiefdom of the Dillard family, whose name dates back to the 1700s in these parts. For generations, the Dillards have run a local hospitality empire based around the sprawling set of bungalows, lodges, and a restaurant all going by the name Dillard House (706/746-5348 or 800/541-0671, rooms $79 and up), on a hill above US-441 at the south edge of town. Heading up the complex is the Dillard House Restaurant, famous for its all-you-can-eat country cooking and its glass-walled dining room, where diners can enjoy plates of classic country ham, fried chicken, vegetables, cornbread, and assorted relishes and desserts. The legendary institution may today impress you as more institution than legend—bus tours dominate the clientele—but you never leave hungry. Rooms are around back in low-slung lodges scattered near a swimming pool, tennis courts, and a petting zoo.

In addition to the rambling inn, the family oligarchy operates a row of roadside businesses off US-441, selling collectible and keepsake souvenirs.

Mountain City: Foxfire Museum

The monolith of Black Rock Mountain imposes an early twilight on Mountain City (pop. 1,077), the community that stretches along US-441. Tucked away on the west side of US-441 just south of the turnoff to Black Rock Mountain State Park, the modest Foxfire Museum & Heritage Center (706/746-5828, Mon.-Sat., $8 adults) is part of a radical cultural and educational movement that began here in the mid-1960s when local schoolteacher Eliot Wigginton, frustrated in attempts to motivate his uninspired high-school students, assigned them the task of interviewing their elders about how things were in “the old days.” The students, inspired with the newly discovered richness of their Appalachian heritage, assembled the written interviews into a magazine, which they named Foxfire after a luminescent local fungus.

The magazine expanded to a series of Foxfire books, and more than eight million copies have been sold worldwide. The program’s twofold success—educational innovation and folk-life preservation—further broadened as the then-emerging back-to-the-land movement seized upon these books as vital how-to manuals for subsistence farming and generally living off the grid. The Foxfire organization still runs classes and events on a 106-acre campus in the hills above town.

Black Rock Mountain State Park

At the wind-worn summit of 3,640-ft (1,109-m) Black Rock Mountain, a flagstone terrace looks out over a grand Appalachian panorama: If there’s no fog, you can see clear to the South Carolina Piedmont 80 mi (129 km) away and as far as the Great Smokies to the north. The highest state park in Georgia, Black Rock Mountain State Park offers hiking trails and accommodations in addition to the splendid vistas. Set off in a ring at the top of the mountain are 10 fully furnished spacious cottages updated with electricity, heat, and air conditioning. The cottages cost $85-250 per night, sleep 8 to 10 people, and are available for rent mid-March through mid-December. There’s also a pair of campgrounds. The park is 3 mi (4.8 km) west of Mountain City, well signed off US-441. For information or for reservations for the cabins or the campgrounds, contact the visitors center (706/746-2141, reservations 800/864-7275) near the summit.