When you imagine the "Center of the World," what comes to mind? A major city? The Greenwich Meridian? Well, you'd be wrong on mostly anything you could imagine, because the Center of the World is in Hartwell, Georgia. Or at least, on Highway 29 South in Hartwell is a sign that says so! A historical marker and monument commemorate what must have truly seemed like the middle of the world to Georgia's Cherokee Indians, who used the spot as an assembly ground. Cherokee councils met there, and meetings took place with traders from other areas. Radiating out from around the locale were trails leading many places and always back to the center. The Cherokee, however, were eventually displaced by white settlers, whose ancestors erected this monument to remember the significance of the spot. They might have gone a bit too far, though, when they started selling "Center of the World" t-shirts from a gift shop nearby.
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