Field Notes

Parking has been crowded at Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve on the weekends. The outdoors has become a welcome respite for people during the pandemic, and we love that people are coming out and enjoying the National Heritage Area. As the two main lots (the AWARE lot at 4158 Klondike Road and the Nature Center lot at […]

With September coming to an end, we wanted to share with you some of the entries we’ve received from people completing the Daisy Days Triple Hike Challenge. By hiking Arabia, Panola and Stone Mountains during the month of September, you have the chance to win a special prize – and see some beautiful daisies.  Check […]

COVID-19 has impacted parks and sites throughout the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area. Check out our answers to all of your questions below! What’s open, and what’s closed? Atlanta Wild Animal Rescue Effort (AWARE) is CLOSED.  Davidson-Arabia Mountain Nature Preserve is OPEN. Please note that public programs are cancelled and Nature Center is closed, however. […]

The historic Bruce Street School ruins, the remnants of DeKalb County’s first public school for Black students, are undergoing a major renovation that will protect this important site for future generations. The rehabilitation will remove debris from the ruins and open up the space for community activities. What do you want the ruins to look […]

Daisy Days is here and we are in the thick of daisy season on the monadnocks. Each fall, these beautiful yellow flowers light up the seemingly barren rock face with their blooms, growing out of the thin solution pits found on Arabia, Panola, and Stone Mountains. If you hike all three mountains and fill out […]

Preservation in Progress Built through a grassroots community effort, the Bruce Street School was the first African-American public school in DeKalb County. While the stone school (also known as “the old school building”) was built in the late 1930s, the Bruce Street School’s history of community-led education efforts goes back to the 1880s. The old school building ruins […]

Daisy Days begins on September 1st! This event celebrates the fall flower bloom on the granite outcrops – specifically, the yellow daisies (Helianthus porteri) – through a Triple Hike Challenge. That means that if you hike Arabia, Panola, and Stone Mountains over the course of the month of September, you can fill out a digital […]

While not in the Arabia Mountain National Heritage Area, Stone Mountain is the most prominent example of the monadnock ecosystem in the Atlanta area. Monadnocks – large outcrops of rock that has withstood erosion while the surrounding landscape has weathered away – dot the Atlanta metro, and include Kennesaw Mountain, Arabia Mountain, and Stone Mountain. […]

The South River is one of the natural treasures of the National Heritage Area. Have you explored it? You can do so in a variety of ways – watch the video to learn more.  To explore the river even more, sign up for a paddle with the South River Watershed Alliance or Panola Mountain State […]

Photo: Phil Varney The daisies are blooming on Metro Atlanta’s granite giants – Arabia, Panola and Stone Mountains all harbor these beautiful flowers every fall, and this year is no exception. Since we can’t hold our normal group guided hikes, we are moving Daisy Days online! The rules are simple: starting on September 1, hike […]

In January, the Arabia Alliance, the PATH Foundation, Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites and Henry County Government broke ground on an exciting new phase of the popular Arabia Mountain PATH trail system: an extension into Henry County! We recently completed a major step in the construction of the PATH by installing a bridge across […]

The thriving music scene, beauty pageants, stock car races and community events of the Lithonia Speedway and Country Club were intimately connected to the wealth and prosperity of one of America’s most historic Black neighborhoods: Sweet Auburn. In spite of segregation and disenfranchisement, Sweet Auburn was home to a thriving community of African-American businesses, places […]