Description and History
Vogel State Park is located 11 miles (18 km) south of Blairsville on US Highway 19 in the north Georgia mountains. At nearly 2,500 feet (760 m) altitude, Vogel State Park is usually cool during the summer months, and is one of Georgia's most popular state parks. Vogel features hiking trails, cabins and a 20-acre (81,000 m2) pond known as Lake Trahlyta, which was created when the Civilian Conservation Corps dammed Wolf Creek. The lake is named for Trahlyta, a Cherokee maiden who is buried a few miles from the park at Stonepile Gap. The Corps workers, located at the CCC Camp at Goose Creek just north of the park, also built the first cabins, picnic areas and camping grounds at Vogel.
Vogel is Georgia's second oldest state park. The land comprising the park was donated to the state in 1927 by Augustus Vogel and Fred Vogel, Jr. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The two were heirs to the Pfister Vogel Leather Company, a Wisconsin tannery founded by Frederick Vogel. The Vogel family harvested bark from oak and hemlock trees located on thousands of acres they owned in North Georgia. The bark was shipped to Wisconsin and used by the company for tanning leather. During World War I, a synthetic method to tan leather was developed so there was no further need for the north Georgia resources. The Vogels gave their land to Georgia to create the state park.
Vogel State Park Lake Dam, also known as Lake Trahlyta Dam, is a 52-foot (16 m) high earthen embankment. The 600-foot (180 m) long dam has a maximum discharge of 2,447 cubic feet (69.3 m3) per second. Its capacity is 522 acre feet (644,000 m3), although its normal storage is 210 acre feet (260,000 m3). It drains an area of 1,638 acres (663 ha).
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