Location
Located in the northeast portion of Floyd County, Georgia, this outdoor recreation area is known locally as “the pocket”. This area is part of the Chattahoochee National Forest, which covers 18 north Georgia counties.U.S. forest service Floyd County is in the Conasauga District of the Chattahoochee National Forest. The facilities at The Pocket include a campground, picnic area, and hiking trails. The center point of the pocket is a natural spring that flows into a creek. The cool water creek and the trout fishing attract visitors from all around.
Like most of Northwest Georgia, the area known as The Pocket was once covered by a vast sea. The pocket is actually a geologic formation formed when weaker limestone eroded and left the surrounding iron ore ridges. The most visible portion of the formation is at the turn to the recreation area.Georgia Trails
History
The Civilian Conservation Corps was in existence from 1933 to 1942. Franklin Roosevelt, governor of New York at the time, felt that both conservation of our natural resources and putting unemployed men back to work were important for state and national recovery from the Great Depression. The CCC is credited with the growth of the park system in Georgia. CCC Director, Robert Fechner wrote: “The Federal Government, through the CCC camps, is turning over to the various states practically without expense to them, a state park system that under ordinary circumstances would not have been created within our generation.” One of the Georgia parks developed by the CCC was the Pocket in Floyd County.
The Pocket was selected for a CCC camp in 1938. Pictures of the barracks, mess hall and other facilities as well as pictures of the men of F-16, Company 3435 which was established on November 8, 1938 can be viewed on a bulletin board in the picnic area. By 1941, as the problem of unemployment diminished, the funding for the CCC was discontinued. When the camp closed, its buildings were bulldozed. But not all evidence of the Camp was erased. The foundation of the springhouse and the floor of a large shower house still exist.