DALTON, Ga. — As volunteers clear away brush and limbs, the water flowing down Dug Gap Mountain near the intersection of Dug Gap Battle Road and College Drive becomes even more visible in the distance.

“This waterfall is one of the city’s crown jewels, and yet some people don’t even know it is here,” said Dalton resident Bryan Macon, who helped organize the cleanup at the site, where the headquarters of the Greater Dalton Chamber of Commerce once stood.

“We’ve had about 20 volunteers, some of them here since 8:30 this morning,” he said. “This is just the beginning of a beautification project. Today is a cleanup. We’ll take the second step this fall. We are going to do some landscaping and plant some flowers. We hope this will be a beautiful area for Dalton citizens to enjoy as well as visitors. This is a special property.”

Volunteers from the Dalton Civitan Club, Christian FreeWorship Church, Believe Greater Dalton and Keep Dalton-Whitfield Beautiful took part in the project.

Macon says that for him and his wife Debbie the work was particularly meaningful.

His neighbor J.K. Dickson donated the property to the city many years ago.

“He was a special man, and this was his prized property,” Macon said.

Macon said the idea is to develop the area into a small park.

“Mayor Dennis Mock has given his full support to this idea, and we are very grateful to him,” Macon said.

Believe Greater Dalton Project Manager Allyson Coker was one of those on hand helping with the cleanup.

“This is another great example of collaboration,” she said. “When we did our community pride focus groups we heard a lot about the need for cleanup and beautification of our community, especially around the interstate interchanges. We’ve got this natural treasure in this waterfall.”

Believe Greater Dalton is a public-private effort to implement a five-year strategic plan for the area to help improve quality of life and economic vitality.

Coker noted that when visitors to Dalton get off I-75 to stay at a motel or go to Dalton State College or eat at one of the restaurants on College Drive the waterfall and the wooded area around it is one of the first things they see.

“When a team of experts from the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute came to Dalton (last year) to work on a master plan for downtown Dalton, they stayed at a local hotel on College Drive,” she said. “We were meeting with them one morning at their hotel before they went downtown to do their work, and they couldn’t stop talking about this beautiful waterfall.”

Mary Sergent was one of a group from Christian FreeWorship Church helping with the cleanup.

“It’s important to us to be involved in the community and when we heard about this, we wanted to help,” she said.

Heath Patterson, president of the Dalton Civitan Club, said such community involvement is vital to the group.

“Not many people know this, but we are the oldest civic group in the community,” he said. “We are coming up on our 98th year, and we are looking for ways to help make the community a better place.”