The Backroads Traveler: To Helen Back

Helen during Octoberfest. Traffic, anyone?

 Helen  is a little town in the northeast Georgia hills that has transformed itself into a tourist mecca. 

In early 1969, some Helen businessmen were searching for a way to bolster the village's sagging lumber economy, possibly by finding a way to entice tourists to drop a few bucks in the town as they passed through on their way to the mountains. They consulted with an artist named John Kollock, who had some ideas. By fall of that same year, Helen had reinvented itself as an Alpine village, straight out of Bavaria. And the rest, as they say, is history. 

I do not recommend driving through Helen on an Octoberfest weekend, unless you have a lot of time to kill.

You can sleep in the windmill at the Heidi Motel.

The Helen Windmill is on the right at the Heidi Motel, near the north end of town. Looking for information online, I found a surprising number of businesses that use windmills to distinguish themselves, but no information on this one. However, according to the hotel's web site, you can actually rent a room in the windmill. 

The twin Anna Ruby Falls.

Helen is also the gateway to the beautiful Anna Ruby Falls and the very popular Unicoi State Park just a few miles north of town. 

At Anna Ruby Falls, water from Curtis Creek cascades 153 feet, while the water from York Creek drops 50 feet. Both creeks begin on Tray Mountain and come together below the falls to form Smith Creek, which flows into Smith Lake in Unicoi State Park and then onward to the Chattahoochee River. 

Unicoi State Park features a 100-room lodge and conference center, 30 cottages, 49 camp sites, picnic shelters, and a group shelter on its 1050 acres. There is also the 53-acre lake, with a swimming beach, fishing docks, kayak and canoe rentals, twelve miles of hiking trails, eight miles of mountain bike trails, a zipline, and a restaurant. Definitely something for everyone.

The details:The traffic jam in Helen was photographed with an Olympus E-M5 and a 14-140mm Panasonic Lumix lens. For the Heidi Motel windmill I used a Canon EOS 6D and the EF 28-105mm lens. Anna Ruby Falls was photographed with a Fuji X-H1 and the Fujinon XC 16-50mm lens.This post was adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia.

 If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Click on the link at left for information about ordering original signed prints from the Rock City Barns book.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2026 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography      digital photography   Canon 6D camera      travel photography     Olympus E-M5 camera    Helon, Georgia    Fuji X-H1 camera     Georgia State Parks     Canon EF 28-105mm lens    Panasonic Lumix 14-140mm lens    Fujinon XC 16-50mm lens    Anna Ruby Falls

The Backroads Traveler: Talbotton, Georgia

 Zion Episcopal Church, Talbotton, Georgia. (Canon 6D)

 Talbotton, in Talbot County, west central Georgia, is a very interesting little town with a good number of early and mid-19th century buildings. A good place to begin your visit is the Chamber of Commerce, across from the courthouse at the corner of South Washington and East Madison, where you can pick up a self-guided tour brochure. 

 Since it's right across the street you can't miss the Queen Anne-style Talbot County Courthouse, built in 1892 (truly a banner year for Georgia courthouses). Here are some other sites I liked.

(Canon 6D)

The Warner-Simpson-Jordan House, Talbotton. (Canon 6D)

 

The Warner-Simpson-Jordon House is at 126 Monroe Street, on the southwest corner of Monroe and Clay. A Plantation Plain house built in 1832 by Judge Hiram Warner, a Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, as his home and law office. During the Civil War the house was raided by Yankee soldiers. Warner, a prominent Rebel leader, resisted, and was sentenced to hang. The Yankees hung him from a tree in his own yard and left him for dead, but he was cut down by a family slave, revived, and lived 16 more years. 

Zion Episcopal Church, on Jackson Street between Clark and Polk Streets, is a Tudor-Gothic structure which would look right at home in an English village. Master craftsmen put it together with handmade iron nails and wooden pegs, making the altars, communion rails, and pulpit of native walnut, and hanging doors that open with a five-inch brass key. The rare Pilcher pipe organ, installed in 1850, is the oldest one still working in the United States.

 A $257,000 project to restore the exterior of the church was completed in 2020. Worship services are held quarterly.

The Straus-LeVert Memorial Hall, Talbotton. (Canon 6D)

Talbotton was an important center for Methodism in the pre-Civil War years, with two Methodist colleges in the town.

One of those colleges was LeVert College, founded in 1856 as one of the first schools for young women in Georgia. Its most prominent building was the Straus-LeVert Memorial Hall, on the northwest corner of Clark Street and College Avenue, also built in 1856. The school closed in 1907, but the building was renovated through the generosity of the Straus family.

Lazerus Straus, a German Jew, immigrated in 1853 and came to Talbotton in 1854, peddling goods from a wagon. He settled in the town, brought his family from Germany, and established a successful dry-goods business on the town square. He moved his family to New York in 1865, and by 1896 the Straus Family were the sole owners of Macy's Department Store.

The Pew-Hill-Dean House, Talbotton. (Olympus E-M5)

The Pew-Hill-Dean House, built in 1852, is a fine example of Greek Revival architecture. It is set back from the road, on the right, at Number 864 on US 80/GA 22/41 south of town. Unfortunately, you won't be able to see its most unusual feature: two-story columns at the rear of the house to match those in front!

The Towns-Persons-Page House, Talbotton. (Olympus E-M5)

 The Towns-Persons-Page House, several blocks out on West Monroe, is a bit hard to see because it is on a hill set well back from the right side of the road with no place to park. A classic Greek Revival design, it was built in 1830 by George Washington Towns, a cousin of the Creek Indian Chief William McIntosh, who built the McIntosh House at Indian Springs in Butts County in 1823.

Many of the original outbuildings were made of brick and are still standing, including a seven-seat brick outhouse!

There are quite a few other interesting and significant sites in Talbotton, so enjoy the tour. 

 (This post was adapted from my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia.)

 If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Click on the link at left for information about ordering original signed prints from the Rock City Barns book.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2026 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography      digital photography   Canon 6D camera      travel photography     Olympus E-M5 camera    Talbotton, Georgia   antebellum houses     old courthouses     Talbot County, Georgia

My Tiny Buddy

In 2017 I began selling off the Canon EOS camera system I had been using for 26 years (both film and digital) and began buying Fujifilm X-series cameras and lenses. I was 80 that year, still actively doing wedding, commercial, and travel photography, and felt it was time to change to smaller and lighter cameras and lenses.

One of my first purchases was a Fuji X-T20 camera which I bought in used but like new condition through an on-line photography forum. When I received it, I was surprised to find it was actually too small. A nifty little black leather half-case with red stitching fixed that problem, and soon the X-T20 paired with a 16-50mm lens became my daily carry camera, going with me whenever I left the house.

It's 2026 now, and the X-T20 is still with me and still the camera that goes over my shoulder when I go out and about. The combination of small size, light weight, and photographic capability make it just right for most of my work. I've even used it to work weddings as a second shooter and the primary photographer, a Canon user, praised my X-T20 files as "pretty." 

The 16-50mm f3.5-5.6 XC (24-75mm equivalent) lens has a very useful range and is plenty sharp. (I have the pictures to prove it.) I mostly work at apertures of f5.6 to f11, and as Kirk Tuck says, all lenses are sharp in that range. After eight years of good service the lens has developed a mechanical problem and will have to be replaced -- probably with the Fuji 18-55mm XF lens.

The 24-megapixel sensor of the X-T20 is sufficient for my work. I have no difficulty making 24x36-inch prints from my files. I know there are later models in this series, but I've never felt the need to upgrade.

The X-T20 is not my only camera, of course. I currently have a Fuji X-Pro1 and an X-T3. In the past I've also owned an X-T1 and an X-H1, both good cameras. I like to use the X-T3 when working with flash or my 50-200mm zoom because I feel the heavier body balances better with those tools. But for casual, everyday out-and-about photography my tiny buddy, the X-T20, will probably be over my shoulder or in my hands.

Azalea and butterfly in my back yard. Fuji X-T20, Fujinon XC 16-50mm lens. a 24x36 inch print of this photo hangs in my living room each summer.

 

If you like my pictures, visit my online gallery at https://davejenkins.pixels.com/  

Click on the link at left for information about ordering original signed prints from the Rock City Barns book.

Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia are available. The price is $22.95 plus $4.95 shipping. My PayPal address is djphoto@vol.com (which is also my email). Or you can mail a check to 8943 Wesley Place, Knoxville, TN 37922. Include your address and tell me how you would like your book inscribed.

Photography and text copyright 2026 David B.Jenkins.

I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.

Soli Gloria Deo -- For the glory of God alone.

Tags:   photography      digital photography   Fuji X-T20 camera      Fujinon XC 16-50mm lens     Fuji X-T3 camera    Fuji X-T1 camera   Fuji X-Pro1 camera     Fuji X-H1 camera     Fujinon XF40-200mm lens