Gadsden County High Point Trip Report

Date: November 11-14, 1999
Author: Fred Lobdell

There are two areas listed by Mr. Martin in his book for Gadsden county. He lists an area of 320+ feet on the Chattahoochee quad, which he says is manmade, and an area of 310+ feet on the Dogtown quad.

I visited the 320+ area, and drove by the 310+ area. The 320+ area is alongside a railroad track, and is a tiny elongated area; from the map it certainly looks manmade. To get to this area it is helpful to have the Mt. Pleasant quad also.

From the exit on I-10 for county 270A (the sign should say Chattahoochee also) go north on 270A about 1.5 miles until it ends at county 269. Turn right (north) on 269 and go another 1.5 miles to county 268. Turn right (east) on 268 and follow it through the hamlet of Rosedale for about 5 miles until it starts to take a sharp bend to the right (south).

At this point the Hardaway Church will be on the left and beyond the church will be the railroad. Churches are ordinarily good places to park but this was on a Sunday morning and it was in use, so I parked by the side of the road and bushwhacked through a thin line of trees to the railroad tracks.

Walk the tracks northwest for about 0.8 miles until you get to the area where the ground rises steeply on both sides of the tracks. I climbed up on both sides and the north side is clearly higher, as shown on the topo. What seems to have happened here is that the railroad was cut through a natural hill. The cuts on both sides are benched, which is what you'd expect of 20 to 30 foot cuts in unconsolidated material. The question becomes, what did the railroad do with the material from the cut? If they piled it up on both sides then the natural hill was artificially augmented, and the HP is indeed manmade. If, however, the cut material was carted away, then what's left is the remains of a natural hill and is the county HP.

For now, I'm not counting this one. I saw no posted notices from the railroad and climbing up the embankments on both sides, although it would probably be difficult to convince a judge that you weren't aware the railroad was private property.

For the "natural" 310-foot area, exit I-10 on county 267 and head north to Quincy. The county road goes east for about a mile through beautiful downtown Quincy before resuming its northward journey. At about 7.5 miles the high area will be on your left (west). If you get to St. John's School or county 272 just beyond the school, you've gone too far. The area you're looking for is about 0.4 miles south of 272. Unfortunately, there is a house and numerous fences in this area. It appears to be some sort of livestock operation, perhaps horses. The high area is not at all obvious. No one was in the yard and it was apparent that this is one that would require permission and, indeed, cooperation on the part of the landowner. As it was getting on towards mid-afternoon and I had many miles to go, I gave up on this one and headed back to Tampa.