Pickens

Marble is a metamorphosed limestone prized for its hardness and variety and is quarried in north Georgia near Tate, in Pickens County. This marble has been used extensively for gravestones and in buildings throughout the United States, including the U.S. Capitol. Sixty percent of the monuments in Washington, D.C., are Georgia marble. Actually, the use of marble dates back to ca 1400, when it was used to carve effigies, bowls, projectile points, and other necessities. These early artifacts were found in Pickens County and are now part of the permanent exhibit at the Etowah Mounds near Cartersville. Colonel Samuel Tate, a grandson of Colonel Samuel Tate had foreseen the possibilities of marble being mined in Pickens County. For that reason, he secured large tracts of the precious marble-stocked land. Also, in 1834 he purchased many lots from the original drawers in the land lottery just four years before the departure of the Indians from the area. Everyone did not take up their land from the 1832 lottery of North Georgia. Ultimately, Colonel Tate became president of the Georgia Marble Company of Pickens County. Ref: The Constitution, Atlanta 12/13/1886.