Kennesaw Mountain must be running out of sweet tea because it has been rolling out the Southern hospitality for a lot of people.
In 2017, the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park had 2,593,725 visits. That amounts to 0.78 percent of America’s total National Parks Service visits.
Visits don’t filter out people who visit multiple times, meaning one person visiting 100 times is counted the same as 100 different people visiting once.
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Kennesaw Mountain ranked 37th out of 337 federal parks sites in the nation for visits — ahead of Mount Rushmore, Bryce Canyon, Mount Rainier and Death Valley.
“We’re just seeing a lot more people here,” said Kennesaw Mountain chief ranger Anthony Winegar.
The park sits where 4,000 troops died during a Civil War battle a century and a half ago. There are markers explaining key points of the battle and also serves as a popular exercise spot.
The National Park Service put on a big marketing campaign in 2016 for its centennial celebration that encouraged people to come out and enjoy the parks.
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In 2017, Kennesaw Mountain was the second-most-visited site in Georgia and accounted for 35 percent of the state's NPS visitors, according to federal counts.
The only other federal parks site in Georgia with more visitors was the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area with 2,768,499.
Coming in at No. 3 with 584,435 visits is the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta.
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Kennesaw Mountain visits over the decade:
• 2008: 1,415,917
• 2009: 1,372,228
• 2010: 1,512,191
• 2011: 1,748,436
• 2012: 1,935,909
• 2013: 1,924,076
• 2014: 2,119,013
• 2015: 2,174,870
• 2016: 2,360,256
• 2017: 2,593,725
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