- [Voiceover] Funding for Georgia Outdoors has been made possible in part by the Imlay Foundation and from viewers like you.

- [Sharon] The Blue Ridge Mountains are more than 1 billion years old some of the oldest mountains in the world.

And the southern tip of that blue ridge is right here in Georgia.

The age of these mountains is counterintuitive.

It seems as if they should be a lot taller if they're really that old.

But the streams and waterfalls that run through the mountains are constantly eroding them.

Bill Witherspoon is co-author of the book, "Roadside Geology of Georgia".

He says, "The ridge was created when the Earth's outer shell was pushed up, resulting in the peaks and valleys we see today."

- When Africa ran into North America.

So Pangea was created when continents came together about 300 million years ago and to 275 million years ago.

And so Pangea was created when those ran together.

- Pangea was just one land mass when the continents collided, the earth was like a map of puzzle pieces that moved around, bumped together and pulled back apart.

Georgia Southern geology, professor James Reichard says that's how the Appalachian Mountain range was created.

- So 250 million years ago, this tectonic boundary form crunched these continental plates all together in one big gigantic collision in Appalachian Mountains rose.

They were as large as the Himalayas at the time.

- [Sharon] There was so much movement that at one time Georgia was connected to Africa.

Causing this?

- And so during that collision, yeah, so there were just many, many earthquakes.

You know, it just earthquake.

Anytime you see a mountain range, think thousands and thousands and thousands of earthquakes, small and big.

That happened every time the rocks moved a little bit.

There was another earthquake.

Every time the rocks broke up a little bit, there was another earthquake.

So in a sense when you're looking at one set of fractures like this you're looking at a fossilized earthquake.

- [Sharon] The only reason we have the amazing scenery of North Georgia is because heat and pressure from all the shifting and bumping created rocks strong enough to withstand the moving earth.

Blue Ridge is the front range of the Appalachians and is mostly a free standing ridge apart from the body of the Appalachians.

It is different and it's older.

The mountains are vast, spanning a length that runs through eight states, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia West Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.

The ridge ends in Georgia, near Amicalola Falls a 729 foot waterfall that is five times taller than Niagara Falls and the third tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi.

The name comes from the Cherokee language which means tumbling waters.

It is located near Dahlonega in Amicalola Falls State Park which is also the southern access to the Appalachian Trail.

There's plenty to do in this region since there are more than 100 waterfalls in North Georgia alone.

This kind of beauty is part of what makes the Blue Ridge mountains spectacular.

There are so many peaks and valleys that waterfalls abound.

This one doesn't have a trail or a name.

It simply crashes in the far northern section of the Chattahoochee Forest.

It is typical of the wildness that still remains in Blue Ridge.

Duke's Creek Falls drops 200 feet with a fantastic view that seems to go on forever.

There is a well-maintained trail and a series of boarded walkways that lead to observation decks.

Anna Ruby Falls is another well-known attraction near Helen, Georgia.

This type of double fall is rare.

Anna Ruby's water comes from two sources Curtis and York Creeks.

At the bottom of the falls the two creeks become one now called Smith Creek.

That creek eventually joins Chattahoochee River and makes a 550 mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico.

All of the streams and falls exist because of the rugged ridges that make up the mountain range.

It made travel hard, if not impossible for early settlers but railways and highways helped mountain towns develop.

And now a lot of people live in places like the cities of Blue Ridge and Dahlonega.

If you look around Dahlonega it's easy to see the attraction.

Small town charm, a lot of quaint shops in the town square and oh yeah, there's gold.

It's found in the crystal and rock so common here.

Years of erosion exposed the gold and by 1829, an estimated 15,000 men poured into this region searching for gold in the mountain streams.

- Pretty sure it was 15,000 miners showed up here in a matter of a year's time.

So we're the '29ERs 20 years before the '49 gold rush out there in California.

They get all the history claims and all that but we was the first.

- Mike Clark gives tours to consolidated gold Mine and Mill.

Built in the early 1900s this was the largest gold mining operation east of the Mississippi.

Tunnels still run under Dahlonega to this day.

Some of them too dangerous to explore.

- Well, it was never easy work.

Anytime you swing a pick or a hammer or messing with a explosive like nitro glycerine or dynamite you was always taking a chance.

And plus there was a lot of other things that went on that you had your respiratory illnesses come later on because of the dust.

The drilling of the quartz would produce what's called silica, which is like glass.

And that would go into your lungs and your lungs have hardened and you get to where you couldn't breathe.

- [Sharon] Despite the obvious danger workers were producing so much gold Georgia Congress established the Dahlonega mint in 1838.

The dynamite and danger did not keep people away.

- They usually try to be a little long way away.

'Cause when blasted there was a percussion there was a echo come out, sound, force and they had to hide from that either they'd do that by cupping their ears open their mouth, they had to to equalize the pressure.

If they didn't their ear drums burst, their lungs collapsed.

The average pay down here was around a dollar a day.

Some people weighed a dollar and a half some people made $2 a day.

The guy that deal with the dynamite the safety man that removed the dynamite that didn't go off.

And they did this because cerebral facts this is for the money, basically.

And it's the same reason it drives us today.

You got paid around, like I said, a dollar a dollar and a half for $2 a day.

Everybody else out there was getting paid 10 cents a day.

That was good money back then.

So if you make a dollar a day, that's 10 times make a dollar and a half.

So it was, it is so you could better for your family.

- [Sharon] Everyone has a different reason for ending up in the mountain towns.

Mike came through here in the early '80s on an old Harley Panhead motorcycle.

He got the taste for gold and never left.

You can still pan for gold in the streams around Dahlonega.

And by the way, the gold on Georgia's capital dome came from Dahlonega.

Gold isn't the only thing that comes out of these mountains.

Grapes, award-winning grapes grow in the cool air and unique soil.

In 2018, this region became a force to be reckoned with in the wine industry.

The Dahlonega Plateau was recognized as a viticultural area which means its special soil quality and climate produce high quality wines.

- What the soil types that we have here are very similar to what you'll find in Southern France and northern Italy.

The red clay soils there, they refer to them as the terra rosa which is a beautiful word for red clay, I prefer that.

Our 1800 foot elevations here are perfect for growing and ripening, especially Cabernet Sauvignon.

- [Sharon] Brandon Boegner is the winemaker at Wolf Mountain Winery.

The Dahlonega Plateau designation puts Wolf Mountain and seven other local wineries on the federal register along with Napa, Sonoma and the other big names.

- Well, there's always a sense of place.

I mean, you know, the, the wines are gonna have a different and that's what you know, the whole term terroir is all about is the flavor that the wines are able to express from the soil and basically that each wine has a sense of place.

So the wine that comes from this place isn't going to taste is the same as say, you know something from Southern France or something from California.

- [Sharon] The wines continue to win awards even when they're up against California's finest.

Recently, their sparkling wine won best in show in San Francisco, a huge honor and one of many for this winery on the mountain.

- [Brandon] I've taken double gold for red, white and champagne.

All from little old Dahlonega's.

- [Sharon] Wolf Mountain is a family business and thousands of vines were planted by hand when Steven Smith isn't in the field he's working the entertainment end of the business.

- Years ago, it seems as folks were moving into North Carolina, but now they're coming into North Georgia for long weekends and stuff like that.

I mean, on a busy Saturday here in our tasting room, you know, something's wrong if we don't see three or 400 people in a four or five hour window before we have our weddings.

And so that, that excitement, that energy, it's a blast.

Since community's great we've got a little park right in town.

We do a lot of things on the weekends, on Friday nights farmer's markets on the weekends, and you know you see the same, you see the same people.

That's what makes it fun.

A to live here, raise families here.

You know, everybody kind of catches up when they see each other in town.

And it's not a very, it's not it's nothing sterile about it.

You know, it's not eyes down looking where you're going, it's, "Hey, how are you?"

"How are things?"

"How's, how's your family?"

- [Sharon] Mountain towns have a sweet atmosphere you may not find in the city.

Many of the folks who move here are in what you might call their next act.

Jim McKnight started Grumpy Old Men Brewery.

He has since sold it to new owners but his story is familiar to many other folks in this town.

- [Jim] First of all, it's a good place to live.

It's a nice lifestyle, but second of all, it's full of what we call people in their second acts.

So they've retired, most of us retired early.

They've still got a lot to do, a lot to contribute and everybody kind of works together and supports everybody and wants everybody to be a success.

And Blue Ridge is just a, it's just a cool place that way.

The tourists, the first thing they say you can talk to any of them, they're all trying to figure out how to move here because they stay here for a week and they're just so relaxed and so laid back and so pleasant till they don't wanna go home.

Well, when I retired from the corporate world I started brewing at the house and my wife threw me out of the house.

So I set up a brewery and my outdoor shower a couple of the restaurants downtown actually asked to taste our beer.

And we said, okay.

So we carried it down and they said the number one request from tourist is what's your local beer?

And we really don't have one, so y'all ought to fire it up.

And before we knew it, it blew up on us and we got like real jobs.

So this was not planned.

This had absolutely nothing to do with anything other than Blue Ridge Karma.

- [Sharon] Sarah Aumen did the same thing.

She started her shop, called Out of the Blue just so she could live in Blue Ridge.

- And I was in the photo industry down in Atlanta, but I came to Blue Ridge and I found a house the first weekend I came and I wanted to live here, so I had to make up a job.

So this is what I made up.

I think what happens here is we're in the foothills of the oldest mountains in the world and there is a calling there is a serious mojo to this area.

And it really is beautiful.

When I got here, there was nothing I mean the shops were boarded up.

I mean, it was like tumbleweeds down the street and people had antique stores, which were just really junk outta their attic that, you know.

And you know we came in and then, you know, some other friends came in and furniture stores started to happen and, you know to supply the demand of the people that were moving up here to the magical area.

There's a lot of passion up here and I think that's what makes all of us comfortable and special is that we're each doing our thing.

I work with winemakers and cheese makers and brewers and I know almost everybody I buy from.

And these people care.

You know, it matters.

And so when, when customers come in I love to show them something that's new.

I love to, I just want somebody to like it as much as I do.

And it, it just is, it feels great when that happens.

It really does.

I think it's fun to kind of taste something and think what's happening here?

Let's do this with that.

And when you hit it, you know it and when you miss it's like, whoa let's don't do that bad call.

But I remember very, very explicitly the first time that happened to me and I had a 1965 Sauternes from France with a homemade foie gras also from France.

It was in a little can unmarked looked like an unmarked can of tuna.

So it was pure fat and pure sugar.

And I had that and I heard Beethoven and I thought, I get it now.

And that started me on my quest which I knew nothing when this all got going, you know so it was fun.

I'm sending an inert gas into the bottle and the gas is displacing the wine.

So what we're gonna do right here is have a little wine.

Cheers.

Smack, smack that is good.

Go ahead.

It's early, but it ain't early in Blue Ridge.

- [Sharon] There is definitely a laid back attitude in this region.

And if you ever wondered if mountain music was a thing, take a listen.

The mountains impact so many things because the forest filters water that flows into the streams.

Trout fishing is huge in Fannin County.

With 100 streams in the region, Blue Ridge is considered the trout capital of Georgia.

Bill Oyster set up his bamboo fly fishing business in downtown Blue Ridge.

He teaches people how to make the fly rods, but few compare to the ones he makes, they are personally hand engraved and owned by some of the world's top anglers.

- We try not to kiss and tell with a lot of that, but we have made rods for presidents and celebrities and that sort of thing.

So we make, in fact is we make rods every year for people that we have no idea where they go.

We have attorneys handle the deal and it goes through their office and we don't even know who our customer was.

So we do have some interesting clientele.

We have customers come in from Manhattan and who live in the middle of a high stress world and they come spend the week in Blue Ridge with us and they just get to kind of relax and decompress.

We're living in the 1950s here and it's really enjoyable place to, to spend your week kind of get away from it all.

We've had multiple customers who end up buying property and moving here after experiencing it with us.

It's just a neat place to be.

We have 12 months a year trout fishing right here.

Whether it's January or August.

You can find cold water, you can find hungry trout.

We have the Atlanta airport an hour and a half away.

We're easily accessible.

We're not snowed in.

So it is 12 months a year.

It is ideal for trout fishing right here in Blue Ridge.

- [Sharon] Bill Oyster makes a high end product that takes days to complete.

He's creating a bit of Americana.

- People like bamboo fly rods because it's part of the tradition of the American fly fisher.

It was invented in the United States in the 1800s and for over a hundred years it was the worldwide standard as far as fly fishing tackle goes.

So even though it was replaced eventually with modern plastics, carbon fiber, fiberglass, things like this, it still sort of represents the culmination of handcraft for the American fly fisher.

Fly fishing, it's like the bamboo rods.

It's not because it's the most efficient or the least expensive or anything like that.

It's the same with fly fishing in general.

If you just want to catch fish, get some hooks and some worms and you can go catch fish.

Can of corn, you can catch plenty of trout.

But it is, it's a traditional way to do it and it's also it's a beautiful way to do it.

It's an artistic way to do it especially when we're trying to do something like catch a fish that we're just gonna turn loose anyway after we've done it.

You know, it is totally a zen-like thing.

There's nothing practical about any of it.

We don't sell anything here that anybody needs.

It's all want based business.

- [Gina] Well, my parents got married in like '42 and they, after that, shortly after that, they bought this property.

It was a community where everybody just congregated right here in this little area and the, all of our neighbors would come down here and we'd have picnics 'cause we were right here by the water.

And my dad had all these picnic tables that were lined out all the way up the, in front of the house.

And so people thought that it was a state park it was really pretty.

Then we actually mowed the grass right into the river and had all those picnic tables there.

So we would go swimming.

I learned to swim right here in the river and that's quite a challenge.

Blue Ridge has so much to offer there, you know there's all kinds of things.

And then my family's all, we all like the outdoors anyway and there's lots of outdoor stuff that you can do with all the waterfalls in the river is a trout stream.

It's a Georgia trout capital and we're right here on the Toccoa River.

So it's, there's lots of things to do here that makes you meet different people, people from everywhere and it's just it's been lots of fun.

We've enjoyed it.

My husband and I have been doing it now.

Well I started working full-time in '94 and so we, and I took ownership in '09.

And so I have been working the whole time.

At night after the guests go home we will get a one of the boats out and go down the river and enjoy that later in the afternoons.

And that's fun.

- [Sharon] The characters who live in the mountains are part of the magic in these hills.

Another reason the mountain range carries a bit of mystique is that they really are blue.

UNC biology professor Jonathan Horton explains why.

So Dr. Horton, everyone talks about the Blue Ridge Mountains and they really do look blue a lot of times.

Why is that?

- So that's yeah, a common question people have about the Blue Ridge mountains and it's really the answer is really the same reason why the sky looks blue.

The process is called Rayleigh refraction or Rayleigh scattering.

And so as light moves through the atmosphere the particles in the atmosphere cause the light to bend.

And so the farther you are away the blue light travels farther.

And so what's interesting about the Blue Ridge mountains is a lot of the vegetation so a lot of the oak trees and hickory trees like that produce a compound called isoprene that's emitted into the atmosphere and that having high levels of isoprene cause more of that scattering.

And so that's what makes the Blue Ridge mountains look blue when you look at them from the distance.

- So basically we're talking about a plant chemical that's causing this.

- Yeah, so it's, it's really interesting.

Some plants produce this compound in response to heat stress.

And so typically you see a lot more of it in the summer.

It's mostly from deciduous trees.

You don't see it as much in the wintertime.

And interestingly, I was in Australia a few years ago and there's a mountain chain just to the west of Sydney called the Blue Mountains.

And the eucalyptus trees there also emit the same compound.

And so they have the same sort of bluish look to those mountains when seen from afar.

- You are, I think what we could call an expert in conservation biology.

Does it ever worry you that the plants that make the mountains look blue could disappear because of climate change or some kind of invasive?

- So yeah, that is a concern because not all of the plant species not all of the tree species produce isoprene.

So as I mentioned, oaks are one of the they're a dominant tree species in our area and they do produce a lot of isoprene.

And there's some concern that oaks might go the way of the chestnut because of a pathogen.

So I don't know if you've ever heard of sudden Oak death it's caused by a water mold called phytophthora that was found in California.

And it hasn't escaped here yet but there's concern that if it does get here it may wipe out the oaks, which are the primary producers of these isoprene compounds.

And so then the Blue Ridge mountains might not be as blue in the future.

- [Sharon] Even though the reason may be scientific.

The blue in the Blue Ridge mountains is stunning.

There are nooks and crannies along the ridge that are host to native flowers and rock formations that surprise you at every turn.

It is a special place to be.

And even better if you wander off the beaten path.

Famous naturalist, John Muir said "You are not in the mountains, the mountains are in you."

And as you gaze across the Blue Ridge that's pretty much how it feels.

I'm Sharon Collins.

We'll see you next time.