Uncle Em Was A Skillful Bulldozer Operator

What locals now lightheartedly refer to as Mt. McIntosh is the overpass that the state road department created some twenty odd years ago. It allows the Oglethorpe Highway to bridge the CSX railroad near the intersection of Ga. highway 196. Originally this was The Atlantic Coastline Railroad and US highway 82. Presently it is US highway 84. Seems government of any level is never content to leave things alone.

Well having recently celebrated my birthday after becoming seventy years old or maybe young I'm proud to say that I remember the original Mt. McIntosh or actually all three of them. They were the highest points in the area rising up into the sky to a height of probably around forty or fifty feet. They were massive man made hills with wide bases as they spread wider with each passing day from the continuous stream of golden pine sawdust being dragged to the pinnacle by a huge combination belt and drag chain traversing a long roller coaster of sorts on a wooden trough supported by a continuous network of polls standing above the golden hill snaking a trail up the slope of the ever growing pile. From a distance the chain trough structure looked like a long elevated walk bridge to the top of the hill. Much like a giant diving board atop the sawdust pile.

Periodically my namesake Emory Winters would spend weeks at the time pushing the piles ever higher with a bulldozer. He simply started up the pile pushing a strip six or so feet wide before a blade of two or so feet high. He slowly pushed to the top allowing the load of the blade to go tumbling down the far side of the hill. Ever carefully avoiding letting the machine beneath him tip over the top. He then lifted the blade and let the heavy machine roll to the base of the pile and start up again. With each pass of the trek to the top the hill grew wider and taller. At the height of the mills activity there were two satellite mills nearby. One was located on the lot which is now M&M Motors. The other was located on the edge of the Goshen swamp where the Liberty County School bus shop is now located a mile perhaps west of Mt. McIntosh on the south side of the highway.

As someone traveled east on the highway the three giant golden hills located within a half mile radius were indeed landmarks of that period of time.