User:Mgreason/Sandbox 6

Callaway Gardens' annual budget is about $30 million.

Mountain Creek Inn was originally a 274-room Holiday Inn off U.S. 27 built in the late 1950s. Around 1980 it was purchased by CG and renamed the Mountain Creek Inn. Later, the Conference Center was created along with the Mountain Creek Ballrooms. The Longleaf Ballroom can accommodate 450-500 people; the Cypress Room holds 75-100 people; the Ironwood Courtyard seats 50-75 people. From late 2012 to early 2013 much of $2.5 million in renovations was spent to upgrade rooms at the Mountain Creek Inn. Edward Callaway said the hotel and its furnishings had grown “old and tired,” thus turning off both individual and group travelers. Read more at: https://www.ledger-enquirer.com/news/business/article29299423.html#storylink=cpy Renovation for the 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) Lodge conference center was scheduled to begin in late 2019 and be ready in February 2020. Three buildings were demolished eliminating 115 hotel rooms. MCinn had two swimming pools. The smaller pool sat right outside what was then called the Plantation Room Restaurant. One year, we returned and the pool was replace with a paved courtyard and a koi pond. As a kid, I asked the waitress what had happened. She responded, “I think some of the older ladies didn’t appreciate their husbands ogling over bathing beauties during their meals.” The cottages in the 1980s were a small community for families, with a teen center, pizza parlor and large pool. They had a full kitchen, BBQ grills and screened porches. However, it was two miles from the Mountain Creek Inn where many activites movies, game nights and theater productions from the La Grange College drama students were held. The original golf clubhouse became the Gardens Restaurant Callaway Gardens built a conference area and full-service restaurant near the cottages in the early 2000s.

Heron, Chickadee, Robin, Thrasher, Hummingbird, Wren, Mockingbird, Whippoorwill, Bobolink, Bluebird, Upper Falls Creek, Lower Falls Creek, Mountain Creek.

• Fantasy in Lights one of the, top 10 light displays in the world and with over 8 million lights NatGeo NovDec

Readers Digest Jeff Bogle Feb. 14, 2022 "The 43 Best Christmas Light Shows That Will Totally Wow You" https://www.rd.com/list/best-small-towns-christmas-lights/ ride through the dazzling illuminated forest and a Christmas village, and because this is a resort, you can enjoy an overnight stay, a meal, or just a few cups of cocoa. New this past year was the Magical Field of Lights, a scene set on Callaway’s 2,500 acres that is nearly two football fields long and features a Christmas tree over 10 stories tall—the tallest in the South!

http://www.trouparchives.org/index.php/manuscripts/entry/cason_j._callawaycallaway_gardens_collection1 Cason Bio https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/callaway-family/ Bio https://www.zippia.com/callaway-resort-gardens-careers-17864/history/ https://mylifeabundant.com/exploring-callaway-gardens/