A Patriotic Family Road Trip in Georgia

Georgia State Capitol

Atlanta, GA

Atlanta's gold dome is gilded with gold from Dahlonega, Georgia — site of America's first gold rush, decades before California.

Andersonville National Historic Site

Andersonville, GA

The site of the Confederacy's largest and deadliest POW camp, now home to the National Prisoner of War Museum honoring Americans held captive in every war.

Old Fort Jackson

Savannah, GA

The oldest standing brick fortification in Georgia, begun in 1808, with daily cannon firings.

National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force

Pooler, GA

A museum of the Eighth Air Force, founded in Savannah in 1942, which flew the bombing campaign over Europe.

Fort McAllister State Park

Richmond Hill, GA

Well-preserved Confederate earthworks taken by Sherman's troops on December 13, 1864, at the end of the March to the Sea.

Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park

Atlanta, GA

Dr. King's birth home, Ebenezer Baptist Church, and his tomb, on one block.

Oakland Cemetery

Atlanta, GA

Atlanta's oldest cemetery, founded in 1850, holding thousands of Civil War dead, Margaret Mitchell, golfer Bobby Jones and generations of mayors.

Margaret Mitchell House

Atlanta, GA

The Midtown apartment, which she nicknamed "the Dump", where Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone with the Wind, published in 1936.

Etowah Indian Mounds State Historic Site

Cartersville, GA

Earthen mounds raised by Mississippian people who lived here from about 1000 to 1550 AD, the largest rising some 63 feet.

Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace

Savannah, GA

The birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, who founded the Girl Scouts in Savannah in 1912.

Tybee Island Light Station

Tybee Island, GA

Georgia's oldest and tallest lighthouse, first built in 1736 and rebuilt in 1867.

Gwinnett Historic Courthouse

Lawrenceville, GA

An 1885 courthouse on the Lawrenceville square, the center of the county before the suburbs arrived.

Dahlonega Gold Museum State Historic Site

Dahlonega, GA

A museum in the 1836 Lumpkin County courthouse telling the story of the Georgia Gold Rush that began in 1829 and led to a U.S. branch mint in Dahlonega.

Fort Pulaski National Monument

Savannah, GA

A brick fort thought impregnable until rifled artillery proved otherwise in 1862.

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park

Kennesaw, GA

Site of the June 27, 1864, battle in Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, with earthworks and trails to the summit.

Pickett's Mill Battlefield State Historic Site

Dallas, GA

The site of a May 27, 1864 battle of the Atlanta Campaign, a Confederate victory, and one of the best-preserved Civil War battlefields in the country.

Chickamauga Battlefield

Fort Oglethorpe, GA

The field of the September 18–20, 1863 battle, the bloodiest in the Western Theater, in the country's first national military park.

Battlefield Memorial Park

Savannah, GA

The site of the October 9, 1779 Siege of Savannah, one of the bloodiest battles of the Revolution, where Casimir Pulaski fell.

Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum

Atlanta, GA

The library and museum of the 39th president, set in gardens overlooking downtown.

Atlanta History Center

Atlanta, GA

Home of the restored Cyclorama, an 1880s panoramic painting of the 1864 Battle of Atlanta.

Delta Flight Museum

Atlanta, GA

Housed in Delta's original 1940s maintenance hangars, with the "Spirit of Delta" 767 that employees bought for the airline.

Southeastern Railway Museum

Duluth, GA

Georgia's official transportation history museum, with dozens of locomotives and cars including the Pullman car Superb, which carried President Warren G. Harding on his 1923 tour and his body home.

Marietta National Cemetery

Marietta, GA

A national cemetery established in 1866 for Union soldiers who fell in the Atlanta Campaign.

Fox Theatre

Atlanta, GA

A 1929 movie palace built as a Shriners temple, saved from demolition in the 1970s by a citizens' campaign.

Rock City

Lookout Mountain, GA

A rock garden opened in 1932 and advertised on barn roofs across the country with "See Rock City."

Savannah Historic District

Savannah, GA

The city James Oglethorpe laid out in 1733 around a grid of public squares, one of the largest historic districts in the country.

Wormsloe State Historic Site

Savannah, GA

The tabby ruins of the colonial estate of Noble Jones, one of Georgia's first settlers, at the end of an oak avenue.