Currahee Mountain (Band of Brothers/Toccoa)

This video is for my dear husband William, who is a huge history buff and Band of Brother's fan. He was extremely excited to hear that we were close to Toccoa and this is just strictly for our viewing pleasure of our trip there.

Currahee Mountain is a mountain located in Stephens County, Georgia near Toccoa. It is the last (or southernmost) mountain in the Blue Ridge mountain range. Currahee appears to be derived from the Cherokee word gurahiyi (Cherokee: ᎫᎳᎯᏱ), which means "water cress place" or may mean "standing alone." [1] Currahee Mountain rises about 900 feet above the local topography and, with an overall elevation of 1740 feet, is the highest peak in Stephens county. Part of the mountain is in the Chattahoochee National Forest.

The mountain was made famous internationally by Steven Spielberg's TV series of Band of Brothers. The mountain was featured during the training of the American Paratroopers at Camp Toccoa, Georgia where they ran up and down Currahee. The name of the mountain became the motto for these paratroopers including the famous quote: "3 Miles up, 3 Miles down".

Camp Toccoa
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For the summer camp of the same name, see Camp Toccoa (summer camp).



Camp Toccoa
Toccoa, Georgia
Type Military Training Base
Built 1940
In use 1941- ca. 1946
Controlled by United States
Camp Toccoa was a United States Army paratrooper training camp during World War II five miles west of Toccoa, Georgia.

It was first planned in 1938, constructed by the Georgia National Guard and the Works Projects Administration beginning January 17, 1940, and was dedicated December 14, 1940. The facility was initially named Camp General Robert Toombs after a Confederate Civil War General

[edit] WWII
In 1942 the U.S. Army took over the site. There were very few buildings or facilities there and original personnel were housed in tents. More permanent barracks were built as the first paratroopers started to arrive. The story goes that Colonel Robert Sink, commander of one of the first units to train there, the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), thought that it was bad psychology to have young men arrive at Toccoa, travel Route 13 past a casket factory (the Toccoa Casket Company) to learn to jump at Camp "Tombs", so he persuaded the Department of the Army to change the name to Camp Toccoa.

Initially, Camp Toccoa used the Toccoa municipal airport for jump training, but due to a transport accident, it was abandoned for having too short a runway for safe C-39 and C-47 operations. All further jump training occurred at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Camp Toccoa also lacked a rifle range, so airborne trainees would march thirty miles to Clemson Agricultural College, a military school in South Carolina, to practice on the college's shooting range.

The most prominent local landmark is Currahee Mountain. Paratroopers in training ran from the camp up the mountain and back, memorialized in the HBO series, Band of Brothers, with the shout "three miles up, three miles down." Members of the 506th refer to themselves as "Currahees", derived from the Cherokee word gurahiyi, which may mean "standing alone".[1] The crest is surmounted by a group of telecommunications towers.


[edit] After WWII
The camp closed at the end of the war. In the late 1940s, it served as a Georgia State Prison site, housing primarily youthful offenders, but several escapes forced the state to close the site, moving the operation to a new facility at Alto, Georgia. The twisting trail up Currahee is now named for Colonel Sink. The only remaining building from the camp is the mess hall, which sits on a corner of a Milliken & Company textile plant. Patterson Pumps Company occupies another portion of the grounds.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Currahee
• Mountain
• Band
• of
• Brothers
• Toccoa
• Ga
• Trail

[blake1653]

I was there today. I have to go back in the first of October for the 101st Airborne Reunion held every year. We run Currahee every year for the Reunion, well the people who want to. It's one tough run! "3 miles up, 3 miles down"

[SSGLuceyGirl]

I hope that the reunion went really well, maybe next year we can come up to watch you guys.

[ygong06]

Wow!! The real hill? Best series EVER!!!

AIRBORNE!!

[SSGLuceyGirl]

LOL, yes it was a great series and yep its the real hill. I wish I could really show how steep it really is

[Drewski0411]

Those boys would have been crazy fit!! Soble was made out to be a villian in the series..but he prepared and toughend them up using currahee! The guys who returned owe that guy their lives in many respects..not enough is said bout that! Great vid..

[SSGLuceyGirl]

I can see how people could get sick from running up and down, but it definately got them prepared and strong

[unalii]

Very cool. (I just noticed my YouTube image, LOL. That is me on top of Mt. Currahee!!) Anyway, did you happen to go up and see the marker that the boys had to touch?

[rlg985]

Just went up the mountain again this year. Anyone interested needs to look up Currahee Military Weekend.

[warpipe]

i'm going to stone mnt in late october. i want to go there. how do i find the access rd once i'm in toccoa?

[zyxgreg723xyz]

i want to run that mountain eventually

[KnightOwl2006]

Cool.

[NuttyGirlGeorgie]

One day, I'll run up and down Currahee :)

[DeaDGoyO]

@blake1653 i would love to make that trip but 3 miles isnt that rough :P here in Mexico Monterrey we have Chipinque and we hike to El Pinar its around 20Km (12,42 miles) :) but i think it would be more interesting to go to curahee to that reunion im a fan of BoB to

[Rivrivka]

I live next to Currahee. It is a beautiful mountain. It means "stands alone" not "watercress place" or whatever.

[darkyoda]

@SSGLuceyGirl At the Milliken Plant at the bottom of the mountain, if you look to the left of the structure behind the textile mill, you can see a series of squat block buildings. These are the remnants of Camp Toccoa that Easy Company trained at. I used to work at that mill, and we used the buildings for storage. If you went inside and looked around, on some of the rafters you could read Graffiti from when Easy was first there.