If my readers recall, I did a post about Volcanoes in Georgia, specifically Pigeon Mountain. After a number of comments from geologists, I learned it wasn’t a volcano. However, I still wanted to visit the mountain and see things for myself. Although I didn’t doubt the experts, it’s always good to verify information. Nothing beats learning new things!
Tennessee Heartwood:
Imagine my surprise when I received a comment from Tennessee Heartwood telling me they planned an excursion with a geologist to visit Pigeon Mountain. First, let me tell you about Tennessee Heartwood. It’s a 501c3 organization dedicated to the preservation of Tennessee’s public lands heritage. Their efforts include the Cherokee National Forest and Land Between the Lakes NRA. The Cherokee National Forest is a huge forest tract in Tennessee. it joins other national forests in Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia (the Chattahoochee National Forest).
Anyway, I jumped at the chance to see the mountain and talked my brother into going. We got up early and hit the road since it’s about a two and a half hour drive to get there from our part of Georgia. We had a great time riding through the mountains and seeing the dawn break. Beautiful drive! I can truthfully say there are some wide open spaces between Gainesville, GA and the Pigeon Mountain Grill just outside of Lafayette, GA! If you get the chance, take a ride through the area.
Pigeon Mountain Area:
We joined the rest of the group and discovered we couldn’t actually go on the mountain since we didn’t have either a hunting or fishing license. Pigeon Mountain is a Georgia Wildlife Management Area (WMA) and you can’t visit it without one of the licenses. Nonetheless, we went all around the mountain and thoroughly enjoyed our discussions with our geologist tour guide Jay. Jay grew up around Pigeon Mountain and provided a wealth of knowledge about the different geologic periods. In addition, he explained in simple terms and how the mountain formed. And yes, he confirmed that Pigeon Mountain isn’t volcanic.
Pigeon Mountain is part of the Cumberland Plateau and there is a ton of limestone up there. Limestone erosion caused the deep pits (like Ellison’s Cave and Petty John’s Cave) in the mountain. If you’re familiar with sinkholes in Florida, it’s a similar process. All told, Jay gave us an entertaining and educational day. We found fossils, learned about chert (which can be fashioned into tools), sandstone, and limestone. We also saw first hand evidence of the different geologic periods present in the area.
Although I confirmed first hand that Pigeon Mountain wasn’t volcanic, I was still disappointed. In addition, I discovered there aren’t any gemstones native to the area. Bigger disappointment! Fun place to visit, but I’ll stick to my Northeast Georgia Mountains and hunt gemstones and prospect for gold!
Connect with me:
Find me on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, or Pinterest and tell me what you think about Pigeon Mountain. You can leave a comment. Lastly, email me at bill@williamlstuart.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
Excellent!. I even wish it was a volcano, because I have to go to Costa Rica or Japan to visit a smoking mountain that can go BOOM!.
Now send this to Richard Thornton, the People of One Fire guy.
He is still adamant about his belief that Pigeon Mountain in Walker County is a volcano. Sadly, Any search on the Internet on Pigeon Mountain lists his site first, and I have had lot of people from our County contact me about the veracity of his claims.
Pigeon mountain blew ash and smoke complete with sulphuric gas in 1857. The mountain is nearly hollow, honey combed on the inside. It consists of 5 extinct and obe dormant volcanoes complete with a caldera. The geology report from 1937 is a complete survey of the fault and paleozoic rock with other rock thrust over it and so on. Diamonds are believed to be in the tubes deep under ground. It has carboniferous content. Read the report ho down in the caldera and check it out. It was documented in an article in the New Yourk times when it last erupted in 1857, June 20 spewing ash and sulphuric gas into the air. Locals had to evacuate the area.
Hi Tammy,
I’ve read about the 1857 event, but have not been able to corroborate it with any local papers such as those in Chattanooga. I visited the mountain with a geologist and he confirmed it wasn’t volcanic in nature. I also recently exchanged emails with Dr. Amy Brock-Hon, a geology professor at UT-Chattanooga. Here is her explanation of Pigeon Mountain:
I’m happy to discuss the geology of Pigeon Mountain, GA. Spoiler alert…it’s not a volcano. Although from Chattanooga, it certainly does look like the shape of a volcano, no volcanic processes were involved in its formation. This shape occurs simply because of erosion and the perspective of the viewer. The rocks of Pigeon Mountain are a sequence of sedimentary rocks starting at limestones at the base and moving up to sandstones and conglomerates at the top. After these rocks formed, the rocks of the region were crunched up during a significant mountain building events towards the east. This caused the rocks of Pigeon Mountain to also get bent slightly into something we call a syncline (concave up fold) which has influenced how it has eroded over time. Pigeon Mountain has very similar geology to Lookout Mountain and Walden’s Ridge. It is a great place for caves (because of the limestones) and it also is a great place to view a sequence of rocks deposited millions of years ago from when the area was under the ocean and recording when it shallowed into an above sea level delta setting with large river systems (you can find plant fossils up in the sandstones and conglomerates).
As I’m not a geologist (yet, though I plan to go back to school and get a geology degree), I have to defer to those who are and I accept their assertion that Pigeon Mountain is not volcanic.
That New York Times article to which you are referring states that “Pigeon Mountain is 10 miles from Augusta, GA”. Obviously not the same Pigeon Mountain.
Hi Tammy. There aren’t any mountains 10 miles from Augusta. I know it says that in the NYT article, but that was from a long time ago, and mistakes often happened in newspaper accounts. Regardless, according to a number of geologists I asked, the geology around Pigeon Mountain is not volcanic but is made up of limestone and sandstone.
Also, just recently in February of 2025, a small earthquake was viewed and measured through a spectrogram and wouldn’t you know it, the moment that this quake struck, the spectrogram lit up red and orange from the bottom to the top, and went on for quite some time. I’m familiar with this from watching Yellowstone, and it’s magma movement. That quake was caused by magma movement. It was a magmatic quake, which caused the nearby fault to pop. Facts.
Also, the quake, on the richtor scale, IF it were fault movement would show sharp spikes only, and this quake had a few sharp spikes followed by sharp rounded waves very close together, moving up and down creating a squiggly line of squiggly rounded lines. Very interesting, and I believe that this Mounatin may, in fact, be a in Volcanic Field. Could it be? Look into the theory that the Atlantic oceanic plate meeting the North American Plate along the East coast may already be turning into a subduction plate.
It’s very interesting what scientists have found using special equipment. If that theory were to actually be happening then I see no reason why magma wouldn’t be rising under the Mountains of Appalachia, especially in the Smokey Mountains, and the Ranges that run along that same arc of the coastline.
Hi Hagan,
i would be interested in seeing the data. I’m a geology student, and I asked my professor about your comments. His opinion is that there are no active volcanoes on the east coast. In addition, as the other geologists I’ve spoken with confirmed, my professor says there is no evidence of volcanic activity in that area. The geology just doesn’t support the notion.
Can you Fossils legally all over pigeon Mountain
Hi Terry. no idea. I’d check with the Forest Service or Georgia DNR.