Can you tell me about Pickens County? (Atlanta, Acworth: houses, weddings)

[Mikescherer]

I have found Jasper area (Pickens County) very appealing. Is this a place for a horse business? We are coming to Ga in late Febuary and want to look at this area to possibly buy into. Can you tell me the good and bad regarding this area, and any other area with in a hrs drive to Atlanta. Thanks.

[gt6974a]

My uncle has some horses right off of 515 in Jasper, I think it's highway 80/81? ( I think) There has been some sprawl out that way. Not sure what you want to do as a business(w/horses) out there. There's plenty of chicken farms. His horse farm is kinda family oriented, his wife's family, not business just recreational. Not too big, not what I would consider a horse farm myself.

The good..., people keep moving towards Canton, Jasper, Ellijay, and BlueRidge. It's popular on weekends for weekend housing/biking/fishing/canoeing/kayakking.

The bad... the sprawl

Alot of, more well off, people buy weekend cabins/houses up there. Most go to blue ridge/ellijay but big canoe area is pretty popular (lots of weddings).

I'm from Acworth(Cobb County) but my Dad built a cabin in Ellijay in the mid 80's, desolate then, now it's booming, takes away from the mnt town feel. I've spent alot of time up in that area but mostly fishing/canoeing. Not too much in horses that I've seen. Jasper(south) definately has more horse stuff going on. You'll see alot of 300-500K homes going up in BlueRidge now, it's weird considering there's no business district at all.

During the week, not much going on.

I also know either side of 20 outside of Atlanta has quite a few farms. I did some contract work for a Sheriff's office, my contact had a farm out in West Douglas County, one of the last few. Go a little farther and less people/more land.

The guy out in Douglas seemed to do pretty well, retired, and still has his farm. He does mostly stable, some show(that prancy crap) but I don't think he did any jumping. Think he had 100 acres, but most of it was for grazing.

He grew up in Douglas County, long line of relatives, and he said they had about 1000 acres when he was a kid, sold alot of it off. But he still has 100 acres. Some are hay fields, has a dog kennel, 2 houses, 1 stable(think 25 or 50 horses) it was huge that he just built 5 years ago. Seemed completely full. That's what he was going to do in retirement. I seem to remember him saying he made more off his farm than at 40 year salary at Douglas County Sheriff's office.

Again, I know squat about horses and these are the only 2 sources I know personal info on horses.

good luck

[gt6974a]

Oh yeah, check out 75 just west of 515, calhoun and adiarsville seem to have some horse farms.

[leefowler]

Pickens has its share a horse farms, but what do you want to do with yours. Another good place to look for horse land that is still reasonable is north east cherokee county. Gt6974a is also correct. Just east of Pickens country is Gordon county and it has some good reasoable horse land, it would seem Adiarsville would be the best place of the two. I grew up around here all my life and just got home from Jasper about an hour ago. So if you need any more help just let me know.