After a stiff loop hike today on the Tobacco Pouch and Falls Creek trails, I drove to the summit of Mt. Oglethorpe for my first visit to the original southern terminus of the AT.
Due to development in the valley, the terminus was shifted to Springer Mountain in 1958. A good deal of the original trail bed is on private property, and presumably most of it is no longer detectable.
The summit has a few interesting things: one of the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club plaques on a rock by the gravel road a hundred yards below the summit (a circa 1930 photo of Warner Hall with pack was the basis for that famous plaque). Other copies of the plaque are posted at Springer, Dicks Creek Gap, Unicoi Gap, and I think Neels Gap.
There is a gated gravel road with a road sign "Original AT Approach Trail." This leads me to believe that there was no road access to the summit back in 1931, so that backpackers had to hike to the summit to begin, a miniature version of today's modern Approach Trail at Amicalola.
The old monument to General Oglethorpe was moved from the summit circa 1999 and is now in downtown Jasper, Georgia.
From the north viewing platform, you can see (with leaves down) Amicalola Lodge, Frosty Mountain, and Springer Mountain to the northeast. They look far away on the one hand; on the other, Springer is 20 miles distant but looks closer than that.
From a historical standpoint, I was thrilled to make this visit and find vestiges of the original terminus. From an aesthetic standpoing, no. But the loop hike really made everything worthwhile, as Falls Creek Trail has a darned impressive waterfall - it's about 1.8 miles below the parking area.
Federal Aviation Administration towers and facilities cover much of the summit now, so it's pretty unsightly. But folks have built a park with trails and viewing platforms and the like to make the best of it.