Night of Lights this Saturday

Pickens Sheriff Book in photo of Vinh Bao Chau.

Press Release from

U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office

GAINESVILLE, Ga. - Vinh Bao Chau, 23, of Jasper, has been sentenced for communicating a bomb threat to a church preschool, cyberstalking of a woman who refused to date him, and interstate communication of a threat.

  Chau was arrested in March of 2017 at his home on Matthews Road in Jasper after calling a bomb threat to the preschool of the Jasper First Baptist.

The Progress reported at that time that when law enforcement identified Chau for the preschool threat, they found the  2015 Pickens High School graduate already had a warrant for terroristic threats in Gordon County.

See full story in this week's print or online editions. 

The Grandview Hotel was three stories high and had twenty-one rooms. After purchasing the hotel for $1,000 and restoring it, W. H. "Bill" Jones eventually sold the property to the Salvation Army, and for a time, the hotel structure was incorporated into part of Camp Grandview. Photo courtesy of Peggy Petty.

By Larry Cavender

Contributing Writer

Ever since travelers stopped for overnight rests at taverns scattered along the Old Federal Road nearly 200 years ago, Pickens County has had a tradition of unique lodging establishments.

Among some of the more notable ones was Jasper's Lenning Hotel just north of downtown, which eventually became the Woodbridge Inn, and is recognizable to almost all Pickens countians. Then there are those lost to history that few people in this area can remember. There was, at one time, Pickens County's contribution to the new motoring hostelry industry of the 1950s and '60s, the motel. Archer's Court, constructed of flagstone, once stood at the corner of East Church Street and Burnt Mountain Road in Jasper where Walgreen's Pharmacy is today.

The Proctor Home is one of five stops on this year’s tour.

The Aces Youth Home (ACES), will hold its second annual Holiday Tour of Homes in Jasper.  Presented by Piedmont Mountainside, this year’s tour will take place on Saturday, December 7th from 12:30 pm until 5:00 pm.  The tour this year will feature five decorated homes down South Main Street and a final stop which includes an open house at the Southern Appalachian Folk School in the former Sharptop Arts building.  

Book in Photos / Pickens Sheriff's

Bee’s owner accused of paying for rival restaurant fire first, then conspiring to torch his own place

“We were surprised but not that surprised” says sheriff spokesman over tie in arson cases

        In a case of country-fried arson, sheriff investigators believe that the owner of Bee’s Home Cookin’ paid men to burn Mary Ann’s Country Cooking to eliminate the competition. The restaurants sit on opposite sides of downtown Jasper on Church Street.

When that didn’t increase his own business, he then paid to have Bee’s torched, say investigators.

The work by sheriff investigators, the Jasper Fire Department and the State Fire Investigations Unit led to the arrest of six men on charges tied to the two fires.

        See full story in this week's print and online editions.