Christmas past at Traveler's Rest

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  • Traveler’s Rest will be decorated for Christmas at the Inn just as it was in the 1850s.
    Traveler’s Rest will be decorated for Christmas at the Inn just as it was in the 1850s.
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    Traveler’s Rest Historic Site will hold the first of two Christmas at the Inn events Saturday, Dec. 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
    Christmas at the Inn will also be held Saturday, Dec. 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
    Both days, visitor’s to the historic stagecoach inn can travel back to the 1800s and celebrate Christmas as it was 200 years ago.
    The inn will be decorated with homemade ornaments and greenery from the grounds and forest.
    Visitors can also enjoy hot cider and Jarrett family teacakes while listening to traditional holiday music.
    Inn tours are available at a cost ranging between $3 and $5.
    The Christmas events are sponsored by the Friends of Traveler’s Rest.
    Traveler’s Rest State Historic Site, standing on a crossroads of history near the intersection of the Old King’s Highway and Unicoi Turnpike adjacent to the Tugalo River arm of Hartwell Lake, showcases Georgia’s last stagecoach inn, long-time residence of the Jarrett family, that displays incredible craftsmanship, provides wayfarers glances into early American travel, and peers back into life in Nineteenth Century Georgia.
    This stagecoach inn and plantation home was built around 1815 by James R. Wyly. He strategically located it along the newly constructed Unicoi Turnpike, a busy highway over the Appalachian Mountains.
    Wyly operated the inn until 1833 when he sold it to his neighbor Devereaux Jarrett, the "richest man in the Tugaloo Valley." Jarrett continued to operate the inn, but doubled its size to make it the home place of his 14,400-acre plantation along the Tugaloo River.
    Three generations of Jarretts inhabited the site until the state of Georgia purchased the remaining few acres of the once-vast plantation for $8,000 in 1955.
    Thanks to both its architectural significance and its role in the early history of the area, Traveler's Rest was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964.
    Today, visitors can tour the house and see many original artifacts and furnishings, some of which were crafted by Caleb Shaw, a renowned cabinetmaker from Massachusetts.