From CatWalkChatt.com
Toney Atkins comments: Another big piece of my personal history apparently has died. The once bustling cotton mill and bleachery (formerly known as Crystal Springs Bleachery) operated 24 hours a day, and it provided most Chickamaugans with jobs and rental homes. My parents, grandmother, several aunts, uncles and cousins all worked at the plant during the time that I was born and until at least a few years after I was graduated from Gordon Lee Memorial High School. I was employed there as a laborer in the bleachery and then in its laboratory for two years before deciding to attend college. Except for the period of his service during World War II, my father worked at this heartbeat of the town most of his life. A few years after he retired from a supervisory position, he returned to the plant to work as a security guard. Many if not most of my friends and classmates lived in the "mill villages" that were built by the operation, one on either side of the lake that was spawned by crystal clear underground springs that flowed from a cavern just south of downtown. Learning about the business' closure saddens me, but it makes me happy to know that the small town of Chickamauga and its citizenry live on.
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