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Indian Spring
(which is adjacent to the Civic Building) was believed to have medicinal,
life-sustaining value by the Cherokee Indians that lived in the
area long ago. Braves would leave their homes in the hills and travel
miles to retrieve Indian Spring water for an ailing Cherokee chieftain.
Local lore holds that those who find their way into Mountain Park
and the area of Indian Spring are drawn by the powers of the healing
waters. Until the 1960s, Indian Spring was the only source of water
for many residents.
For more than
25 years before incorporation in July 1927, Mountain Park was comprised
largely of summer cottages of Atlanta's elite. Some of these cottages
had, and still have, special names including The Buzzard's Roost,
Rossier Holler, The Owl's Nest, Park-Ur-Carcass, Paradise, Buckeye
Ridge, Shack-Toe-In and Nuth-in-Much. More recent residents have
continued the tradition of naming their homes, too.
In 1932, only
three families lived in Mountain Park year round. Mayor "Charlie"
Johnson operated Mountain Park's only business, "The Stand,"
a sundry store located at 101 Mountain Park Road. In 1971, Charlie
sold "The Stand" to LaNell Cofer who continued to operate
it until she converted it into her private residence.
The city's unique
beauty was enhanced when Lake Cherful was built next to its first
lake, Lake Garret. Lake Cherful was constructed in 1951 over Oscar
Burrell's cornfield, which was located in both Cherokee and Fulton
counties -- thus the name Lake Cherful. The small white house where
Oscar Burrell lived still exists on the Cherokee county lakeside.
Electricity
was available in Mountain Park by the late 1930s. In 1960, Cobb
County started supplying water to the city and natural gas became
available in 1968. Nearly 90 full-time families resided here and,
in the early 1970s, the residents were asked to voluntarily remove
their outhouses. During that time the Civic Building, built by the
Civic Club with the help of private donations, was nearing completion.
In 1976, Joyce Ayers became the first woman to head a municipality
in Georgia when she became mayor of Mountain Park. The city's Volunteer
Fire Department was established during her term and remains one
of the few completely volunteer fire departments in Georgia today.
In the mid 1970s,
the Mountain Park Village Green was enlarged using reclaimed land
from Lake Garret, which had become shallow due to siltation from
real estate development upstream. The original sand bottom swimming
pool was replaced in 1977 and, in 1993 the pool house was renovated
to include handicapped-accessible facilities. In 1989, Mountain
Park became the first municipality in Georgia to begin a recycling
program.
More recently,
the Mountain Park Improvement Club completed several enhancements
to the city in 1997 and 1998, including renovation of the Sunday
school pavilion, picnic pavilion and foot bridge over Lake Garret
dam.
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