Cascade Springs Nature Preserve

This guide to Cascade Springs Nature Preserve in Atlanta opens with a puzzle: no two signs or maps agree on how many acres this southwest Atlanta forest actually covers. It traces the ruined outdoor auditorium at the heart of the preserve back to a turn-of-the-century mineral-spring resort, and follows how that resort's hotel and bathhouses faded until the site was headed for bulldozers by the nineteen seventies. You'll hear about Jan Meadows and a group of local residents who fought to save it, working during the term of Atlanta's first Black mayor, Maynard Jackson. Look for the flat, stone-framed clearing that most hikers walk straight past.