Dixie deals
Nostalgia seekers eye this weekend’s Dixie Highway 90-Mile Yard Sale
Chenille bedspreads may not be in abundance, but expert pickers are likely to find a wide variety of items in this weekend’s 90-mile Dixie Highway Yard Sale between roughly Ringgold, Ga., and Marietta, Ga.
“This is a free-for-all,” said Ellen Archer, executive director of the Cartersville and Bartow County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It’s fun.”
The event, which began in 2006, is named for the highway first envisioned in 1912 by Carl Fisher to transport Northerners to the South in the winter. Built between 1915 and 1927, it served travelers from Michigan to Florida — including many a stand with chenille bedspreads — and later became U.S. Highway 41.
The initial purpose of the sale was to attract visitors off Interstate 75 after the Georgia legislature designated Dixie Highway as a historic driving route, officials said, and the Georgia Dixie Highway Association installed 126 road signs designating it.
The annual sale is loosely held today through Sunday, rain or shine, but many vendors will have set up Thursday, according to Archer.
In addition to Marietta, where there is a large sale at the city’s history museum, and Ringgold, the highway also passes through Tunnel Hill, Rocky Face, Dalton, Resaca, Calhoun, Adairsville, Cassville, Cartersville, Emerson, Acworth and Kennesaw.
The sale is “wherever people set up,” said Archer, but she said there is always good participation from the southern end of Bartow County to the south end of Dalton and from Rocky Face to Ringgold. “There are no rules.”
She said hotels along the route are invited to post specials on the event’s Facebook page.
“We’ve been overwhelmed with people outside the region wanting to come in and rent space,” Archer said.
Individuals still seeking space today can call the Cartersville and Bartow County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Archer said the sale attracts a slightly different crowd than most yard sales, with many shoppers looking for items to add to their memorabilia collections.
“It draws people [who] are looking for items of nostalgia,” she said.
History buffs will appreciate stretches of Highway 41 north of Cartersville to Adairsville where the original Dixie Highway, running parallel to the present road, can be seen, Archer said.