Newspaper Page Text
DawsonCountyNews
WEDNESDAY I FEBRUARY 19, 2020 DaWSOflNeWS ^COITI DAWSONVILLE, GEORGIA $1.00
Search continues for missing hiker
By Jessica Taylor
jtaylor@dawsonnews.com
The multi-agency search for an
Appalachian Trail hiker that went miss
ing in Dawson County late last week is
now continuing into a third day, authori
ties say.
During a press conference on Tuesday
morning, Dawson County Fire Chief
Danny Thompson announced that the
search for Eddie Noonkester, a
North Carolina man that
embarked on the Appalachian
Trail on Friday, Feb. 14, will
continue today, with multiple
agencies searching the trail in
Dawson County and the sur
rounding areas.
According to Thompson, the
search for Noonkester began on
Noonkester
received a call expressing con
cern for Noonkester’s health.
Around 11:20 a.m. on Sunday
shortly after the call, Noonkester
himself called the Dawson
County 911 and was interviewed
by an on-duty battalion chief,
Thompson said.
“In speaking with Eddie, it did
appear that he sounded confused
Sunday after Dawson County authorities initially,” Thompson said.
Authorities believe that Noonkester
became disoriented and may be suffer
ing from a medical emergency.
“We’ve spoken to the family. He
doesn’t have any known medical issues
but he does have a family history of
dementia,” Thompson said. “Family and
friends have shared some information
with us that they feel he may have been
over the last several months exhibiting
See Hiker 13A
Finding facts in the forest
Jessica Taylor Dawson County News
A sign reading "keep out" and a barbed wire fence are still in place around the remains of the Georgia Nuclear
Aircraft Laboratory inside Dawson Forest in Dawsonville.
Discovering what happened inside the Georgia Nuclear Aircraft Lab
By Jessica Taylor
jtaylor@dawsonnews.com
Over half a century later, rumors still
swirl around Dawson Forest and the
mysterious remnants of Dawson
County’s past in the Cold War.
Though the Georgia Nuclear Aircraft
Facility has been out of commission
for nearly 50 years, local residents can
still be heard whispering about two-
headed deer and oak leaves the size of
elephant ears spotted around the nucle
ar facility’s remains.
For nuclear engineer and author, Dr.
James Mahaffey, the task of unraveling
the history behind Dawson County’s
top-secret nuclear test site and separat
ing facts from the fiction has led to
decades of research and hard work.
“Everything we knew started out as
a rumor, and some of them were right
and some of them were wrong,”
Mahaffey said. “Not so much anymore
but back then everything nuclear was,
by its nature, a secret.”
Since his graduate studies at Georgia
Tech in the 1970s, Mahaffey has com
piled research on the Georgia Nuclear
Aircraft Faboratory (GNAF) which
has been published in his 2017 book
Atomic Adventures where he discusses
what happened behind closed doors at
the site.
“It just gradually shaped into this
fantastic facility. It was a singular
facility. It wasn’t like anything else in
the world and it was in Dawsonville,”
Mahaffey said. “It was out in the
woods. That’s what they wanted. They
wanted it where nobody would sneak
around and want to know what it was,
but that didn’t work.”
Rumors immediately began circulat
ing when locals caught wind of a
secretive laboratory being built inside
the forest.
In the late 1950s, the United States
Air Force purchased property in
Dawson Forest to build the GNAF
which was then operated by Fockheed
Martin. The site needed to be devel
oped in order for it to house the nucle
ar reactors, firehouse, administration
building and the radiation effects facil
ity which meant clear cutting thou
sands of trees, Mahaffey said.
“You couldn’t be on the property
unless you had a security clearance
and logging truck drivers didn’t have
security clearances,” Mahaffey said.
“What they did was they just piled up
all these dead trees, thousands of dead
trees in the exact center of the thing
and set fire to it.”
When Mahaffey conducted inter
views for his research, he recalls first
hand witnesses reporting red and
orange glowing skies that spread over
Dawsonville.
“The yellow glow from this huge
bonfire reflected off the clouds and
people in the area within miles of the
place would see that and they were
thinking this very secretive atomic
place, this is the end of the world,”
Mahaffey said.
Theories ran wild and unrestrained
during the lab’s tenure in the county.
Mahaffey said a popular rumor that
circulated was that the facility was
built to study flying saucers that had
45 firearms,
narcotics seized
from residence
By Alexander Popp
apopp@dawsonnews.com
A burglary in the city of Oakwood and a
stolen vehicle in Forsyth County led state
and local authorities to arrest a
Dawsonville man last week, charging the
man for dozens of illegal firearms and a
large quantity of narcotics which were
seized during a search of his home.
Johnny Alfred Pritchard IV, 45, of
Dawson County was taken into custody on
Sunday, Feb. 9, after officers with the
Dawson County Sheriff’s Office,
Oakwood Police Department, Hall County
Sheriff’s Office, Forsyth County Sheriff’s
Office, Georgia Bureau of Investigations,
Federal Bureau of Investigations and
Department of Natural Resources executed
a search warrant at an address on Kelly
Bridge Road in Dawson County, Dawson
County Sheriff Jeff Johnson said in a press
release on Thursday.
See Guns|5A
GDOT eyes Ga. 136
bridge replacement
at Hall-Dawson line
By Jeff Gill
DCN Regional Staff
A 64-year-old bridge at the Hall-
Dawson County line is being eyed for
replacement, with the state describing the
structure as “functionally obsolete due to
the narrow deck width.”
A recent Georgia Department of
Transportation environmental report
about the bridge on Price Road/Ga. 136
says the deck has “severe cracking and
(areas) with exposed rebar.”
Also, “the bridge is classified as having
an unknown foundation and therefore
could be at risk for scour,” or sediment
erosion around the base of the bridge.
“Replacement of this bridge is recom
mended,” the report says.
“Once we have environmental approv
al, we will begin purchasing right of way,
including obtaining permits from (the
Army Corps of Engineers),” district
spokeswoman Katie Strickland said in a
recent email.
The bridge crosses the Chestatee River
See Bridge 14A
See Forest 17A
0
9 0 9 9
Inside
Volume 4, Number 82
© 2020, Dawson County News
Dawsonville, Georgia
Church Events
3B
Classifieds
7B
Dear Abby
6B
Deaths
2A
Legals
8B
Opinion
9A
Sports
1B
4A Sexual assault
kit initiative
expanded
6A Jessica Taylor
L learns what life
is like working
in 911 dispatch
NORTHSIDE
FAMILY MEDICINE &
URGENT CARE
DAWSON
81 Northside Dawson Drive, Suite 100
Dawsonville, GA 30534
Monday - Sunday: 8:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Call 706-216-6000 for an appointment
NorthsideUrgentCare.com
Welcoming New Patients!
Northside Family Medicine & Urgent Care is here for
the needs of your entire family. You'll find a commitment
to personalized care, with a focus on communication.
For your busy lifestyle, we offer extended office hours
and weekend appointments to help you find time for
the routine medical care you and your family need. We
accept most insurance plans, and offer a convenient
location for the Dawsonville community on the
Northside/Dawson Medical Campus.
Services
• Routine medical care
• Blood sugar checks and
diabetes management
• Hypertension screening
and management
• Allergy treatment
• Physical exams (by appointment only)
• Sports/School physicals
