Buckhead - Atlanta, Georgia - Tanyard Creek Park

This park is a good place reflect on the history of Buckhead and Atlanta. Its tree-shaded acres and winding creek were witness to both early settlement and Civil War tragedy.

Just across Collier Road from the park entrance, old mill stones recall the grist mill of Andrew Jackson Collier, for whom the Collier Hills neighborhood is named and the first two letters of whose names give us Anjaco, the name of one of the neighborhood's streets. His mill stood on Tanyard Branch, or creek, which runs through the park and was a landmark in the Civil War Battle of Peachtree Creek (of which Tanyard Branch is a tributary).

The creek and park area were the scene bitter fighting in the battle for Atlanta. A federal general who witnessed that bloodshed said, "Few bettlefields of the war have been strewn so thickly with dead and wounded as they lay that evening around Collier's Mill." Among Confederate leaders in that battle was one named Walthall, from whom a street bordering the park is named.

Historic markers at the park give visitors a vivid picture of those events in 1864.

Park overlook

Historic marker