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Gennett Poplar in Ellijay, Georgia
Just 5 miles west of downtown Ellijay, Georgia, in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, a popular hiking trail leads to the second tallest tree in the state. Known as the Gennett Poplar, the massive tulip poplar rises over 100 feet tall and spans 18 feet around at the base. As legend has it, back in the 1950s, the Gennett Lumber Company, founded by two brothers in 1901, owned the land along the Chattooga River in Georgia and South Carolina. The pair understood the importance of old-growth forest preservation and asked that, in the clearing of this land, this particular poplar not be touched. To get there, take the roughly 6-mile Bear Creek Trail—one of the state’s most popular mountain biking and hiking trails—along a verdant, moss-and-fern-filled creek valley filled with hemlock and rhododendron.
Just 5 miles west of downtown Ellijay, Georgia, in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest, a popular hiking trail leads to the second tallest tree in the state. Known as the Gennett Poplar, the massive tulip poplar rises over 100 feet tall and spans 18 feet around at the base.
As legend has it, back in the 1950s, the Gennett Lumber Company, founded by two brothers in 1901, owned the land along the Chattooga River in Georgia and South Carolina. The pair understood the importance of old-growth forest preservation and asked that, in the clearing of this land, this particular poplar not be touched.
To get there, take the roughly 6-mile Bear Creek Trail—one of the state’s most popular mountain biking and hiking trails—along a verdant, moss-and-fern-filled creek valley filled with hemlock and rhododendron.
