Originally a gravel road constructed by the WPA in the 1940's, GA 143 grew to an extensive highway that followed the route that had received the honor of opening up remote parts of Northwest Georgia.  A major highway that grew in length over the years, this highway was one of the casualties of a major reshuffling of the highway system that resulted in the decommissioning of the entire route in 1977.  The routes that took its place included the massive extension of GA 136, GA 136 Connector in Calhoun, an extension of GA 108 and the renumbering of the Henderson Mountain portion to short-lived GA 379.

During the many years that this route existed, GA 143 existed in two parts joined by a lengthy multiplex with GA 53 and a shorter multiplex with GA 156.  The western portion extended from Calhoun to Sand Mountain west of Trenton and the eastern from GA 53 east of Fairmount to the intersection of former GA 5 and GA 53 in Tate. 

GA 143 was a highway that traverses some of Georgia's most rugged terrain.  In all, the route crossed four steep mountains, two of those plateaus.

The original route of GA 143 consisted of what is now GA 136 and GA 136 Connector from present-day the entire route east of what is now GA 201 in Villanow to downtown Calhoun. Designated in the mid-to-late 1930's, the extension east into Pickens County did not come until the 1940's.

The original GA 143 from Calhoun to Villanow. (1938 GHD Map)

The originally portion consisted of a 19 mile-long unpaved route crossing Snake Creek Gap through the town of Sugar Valley.  The route began at then GA 2 (present GA 201) in Villanow and extended southeast through a narrow gap between Mill Creek Mountain and Horn Mountain where GA 136 is today. 

When the highway through that area was built in the 1940's, the route was entirely unpaved until 1953.  The route was then paved only along the portion from Calhoun to Sugar Valley, and it was not until 1959 that the route was fully paved. 

This original portion of the route passes through the only level terrain between Calhoun and Villanow, the first state route to connect Calhoun to this remote mountain community featuring the state's oldest operating store. 

The history of the Calhoun-Villanow Road as the only portion of GA 143 was very breif, however, as this portion of the route was more than tripled in length over time. This was first accomplished when GA 143 was extended east to Tate and later when GA 2 was relocated north to the Chattanooga suburbs.  Continue reading to learn about the rest of the highway.

After GA 143, the next section to join in the lengthy highway was what is today Henderson Mountain Road. The extension was indeed a considerable stretch that could have more easily been another route, but GA 143 and GA 53 were joined for 23 miles to link the two sections together. 

GA 143 in Pickens County. Note the differences in the two maps of the route on the unpaved portion. The first map is an official map from 1956 and the second from 1963.

Henderson Mountain Road as part of GA 143 largely appeared to be an objective to eventually build a paved road over a steep mountain pass that hindered travel in the region. GA 143 is also shown on some maps to have joined GA 156 over this roadway, which is realistic considering that GA 156 had no other logical course. This route, mostly unimproved and completely unpaved west of then GA 156 (now GA 108), connected GA 53 east of Fairmount to then GA 5 and GA 53 in Tate over a distance of 22 miles following present-day Henderson Mountain Road and GA 108. 

While the majority of this route consisted of rolling terrain and farmland, the issue of building a road over Sharp Mountain dogged the completion of the route completely. When first commissioned, the route went further south than now, following a lengthier 16-mile long route along present-day Quarry Road and a portion of Pleasant Union Road.  By 1958, the majority of this route was removed from the state highway system with a large portion abandoned, leaving five miles of GA 143 to the west and one mile of GA 143 to the east of GA 156. 

By the early 1960's, GA 143 was restored, but on a newer route slightly further north.  This new route cut two miles off the distance, but the terrain remained steep and difficult with extremely steep grades in places.   Nevertheless, this unpaved portion remained a fully marked and maintained state route for another 10-15 years. 

The first improvements made on the route were completed in 1971 or 1972 where a three-mile portion of the route was reconstructed and paved from GA 53 eastward to present Jerusalem Church Road.  Unfortunately, these would also be the last improvements made by the state. 

Work to complete the paving and reconstruction of unpaved GA 143 was going to be an expensive one.  Meanwhile, steep GA 143 was also a maintenance headache that GDOT did not want and changing priorities were continuously stalling the project. 

GA 143 mostly truncated to projected mileage along present-day Henderson Mountain Road (1975 GDOT Map).

By 1975, all of Georgia's remaining unpaved state routes with exception of GA 135 Loop in Lanier County were intermittently turned back to the counties awaiting funding to complete backlogged paving projects along their routes.  One of these was the unpaved GA 143.  As a result, GA 143 became two stubs on each end divided by a rough little mountain road that was then placed under local control with the roadway listed as "projected mileage" until funding became available to complete the work.  This curious scenario left a three-mile paved highway to nowhere from GA 53 east of Fairmount to Jerusalem Church Road and a highly confusing change of route number where GA 143 simply changed to GA 156 at the decommissioned portion of GA 143 west of Tate.  Considering that both highways apparently used this road, this was bound to have caused tremendous public confusion.

The Pickens County portions of GA 143 became GA 379, 108 and 108 Connector, respectively (1981 GDOT Map).

For a brief time, after GA 143 was fully decommissioned, a new route number, GA 379, took over the Henderson Mountain Road portion. However, this did nothing to further the project that remained incomplete. By January 1981, Henderson Mountain Road became the only portion of former GA 143 to be ceded completely back to local control. Meanwhile, the remainder of the county section of GA 143 became parts of an extended GA 108 and GA 108 Connector. Since the turnback of Henderson Mountain Road, work to pave the road has progressed slowly with much of it far substandard.  With the exception of the portion from Pleasant Union Road to GA 108, the majority of the paved route is simply a cheap paving job over the original gravel road graded smooth and slightly improved. 

Regarding county paving work on that section, until 2003, the portion from White Pine Crossover to Pleasant Union Road remained largely unpaved and rough.  On that portion is where the road crosses over Sharp Mountain.  That portion today is also simply the gravel road graded smooth with a double coat of surface treatment (tar and gravel), but the road is fully paved now, albeit slow and substandard.  In all, the route is generally one of very low traffic volumes and only a shadow of its past as a state route. While this portion has been forgotten, the remaining route described below lives on as GA 136.

Originally a relatively short highway, the two extensions of GA 143 established the highway as a major route, with the westward extension sharing in the tradition of the highway that opened up Dade County to the rest of Georgia in the early 1940's. The change also made GA 143 the first and only highway directly linking LaFayette and Calhoun. 

The Calhoun to Sand Mountain portion of GA 143 was and still is today as SR 136 one of the more scenic routes in Georgia.  In fact, portions today still bear the name "Lookout Mountain Scenic Parkway", a network of roads designed to capture the best scenery in the northwestern plateau. 

The scenery also came with some very difficult terrain as the curves and grades over Maddox Gap on Dick Ridge, Lookout Mountain on two sections between Trenton and LaFayette and another deadly stretch with horseshoe turns on Sand Mountain west of Trenton made for difficult construction, especially in the era when modern road building techniques were not fully evolved.

These stretches have all proved to be deadly as well as a maintenance headache with slides and wrecks commonplace along these mountain crossings.  So difficult are these crossings today that GDOT is proposing a new route to the north connecting Dalton to Trenton.

Also of note is that this portion of GA 143 was certainly not the most direct route in this region, either. The current route today still shares those same overlaps that GA 143 did along GA 151, present US 27 Business in LaFayette and an overall crooked course along the length of the route. In fact, overlaps overall on GA 143 were a major factor in the demise of the highway. 

Newly commissioned GA 143 Connector in 1973. This was superceded by an extended GA 136 only five years later (1973 GDOT Map).

In 1972, along with a number of other routes added that year across the state, GA 143 grew a seven-mile long banner route north of Calhoun to recently completed I-75 and to U.S. 41 in Resaca.  This route, then known as GA 143 Connector, now mainline GA 136, lasted until the final days of the highway.  As the first and only banner route, this route would never have existed except that there was no direct or convenient connection from I-75 to GA 143. In addition, Resaca had no other routes through their town except U.S. 41 at the time.

The existance of SR 143 became impractical in the late 1970's as GDOT planned to create a major east-west route consolidated all under one route number across northern Georgia.  Though GA 143 was well-defined west of Calhoun, the other portions to the east were a witches brew of overlapping routes and an unimproved section of too negligible importance to justify the continuation of the route. 

Though the route could have taken over other routes, the decision was made to extend another highway far west of its previous domain to take the place of GA 143.  This was undoubtably a costly decision, but the changeover occured in 1977 after improvements were completed on locally-maintained Oakman Road, including a new road north of Oakman, connecting then GA 156 (now also GA 136) north of Oakman to U.S. 41 just north of the short-lived GA 143 Connector in Resaca. This was all done for the purpose of creating the new state route. 

When GA 136 was completed and extended, it was stretched a considerable distance of nearly 40 miles to meet and take over GA 143 through the length of the broad Coosa Valley. The result is that what was then SR 143 Connector became a small part of GA 136 and GA 143 from Calhoun to SR 143 Connector is now SR 136 Connector. As a result, all of GA 143 west of there also became GA 136.  After 25 years, this change is a distant memory, but more changes may be yet to come as GDOT plots its course for the new highway to the north of present GA 136. Could history repeat itself in a different way?

Today, no route in Georgia bears the number 143 since the highway was dissolved into parts of other state and county roads. A route plagued with issues of overlapping along a significant portion of the route and losing significance due to the incompletion of a lengthy section, the route faded into history over 25 years ago.

The retention of the route would probably have resulted in the actual completion of the route, but the opportunity was not provided.  The entire route of GA 143 consisted of 60 miles on the western portion, 19 miles on the eastern portion and 23 miles inbetween where it shared mileage with GA 53 for a total mileage of approximately 102 miles, making it one of the longer routes in Georgia. 

It should also be noted that the route when it was first created was never intended to be a lengthy route. The majority of the route was created as a result of the relocation of GA 2 in the late 1940's/early 1950's northward.  It can at least be said that GA 143 was a largely static route with only a small portion ever relocated when it was in its full length. 

Before GA 136, GA 143 was also the only route to summit both the Lookout Mountain and Sand Mountain plateaus in northwest Georgia as well as the only state-maintained east-west route to connect I-75 to the Alabama line. Finally eliminated in 1977, the routes that today follow GA 143 include GA 136, GA 136 Connector, Pickens C.R. 308 (Henderson Mountain Road), GA 53 and GA 108.  Towns and communities along the former route include Tate, Calhoun, Sugar Valley, Villanow, Naomi, LaFayette, Cooper Heights, New Salem and Trenton.