At the site of an abandoned 19th-century brick factory, there is a distinctly odd nature preserve that is home to a bizarre hike known as Doll’s Head Trail.
The area is called Constitution Lakes Park, and it is unexpectedly found between an active freight line, a major industrial area, a river, and Interstate 285. When the South River Brick Company stopped digging up clay and closed up shop, the industrial site was reclaimed by the encroaching natural world.
There are also two bodies of water, known as Constitution Lakes, that were created when the brick company’s clay pits were filled in with rainwater. Because these man-made lakes were actually old red clay excavation pits, they certainly set the mood with an eery, almost bog- or swamp-like appearance.
But within this abandoned brick factory that has been turned into a nature preserve, there’s an especially creepy hiking trail running through it. And if you’re willing to travel down to Atlanta, Georgia to check it out, it is likely to be one of the strangest hiking trails you will experience.
While heading down a narrow trail through thick fauna that is not typically seen in such an urban environment, you’re likely to spot something….or someone….lurking half-hidden against a fallen, rotting log. But what is it?
Your eyes aren’t fooling you. The hiking trail is littered with disembodied baby doll heads, abandoned truck parts, and other discarded and weather-worn objects.
This trail is the work of a local carpenter named Joel Slaton. Known as Doll’s Head Trail, this hiking trail is actually also an art installation that has was created from discarded doll parts, old objects, and other trash that was found scattered around the site. Slaton also encouraged visitors to contribute their own found art, and the art displays have been collecting there ever since. Everything in the collection was found inside the park itself.
The idea of creating a trail of found art serves another purpose as well: it cleans up the nature preserve by repurposing what would normally be considered trash.
But before you visit this trail, you should know that bringing things into the park to leave on the trail is discouraged. As the trailhead reads, “litter makes the angels cry.”
