Kennesaw Business Association

Kennesaw is a city in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 21,675 at the 2000 census. Census estimates 2007 indicate a population of 31,613. The original name for the town was Big Shanty. It is now considered a suburb of Atlanta.

During the American Civil War, Big Shanty was the site of major fighting in the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, part of the larger Atlanta Campaign. Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park [1] now contains many of these historic areas, though much of this land has been developed, and some buried artifacts taken by people with metal detectors. Kennesaw Mountain (as well as conjoined Little Kennesaw Mountain) is included in the park, and its summit is the highest point in the Atlanta metro area, at an elevation of 1808 feet or 551 meters above sea level. The city was renamed for the mountain.

The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History [2] is located downtown, next to the Western & Atlantic railroad tracks on Cherokee Street, just off of Main Street (old U.S. 41 and Georgia 3). The museum is the current preservation and display location for The General, the locomotive that played the key role in the Great Locomotive Chase (the Texas which chased it is at the Atlanta Cyclorama). Kennesaw is home to the only Iditarod finisher from the State of Georgia, William Reed Borden and three time world champion cyclclist Mike Coles. The area around Kennesaw is also a major retail hub with a major regional mall, Town Center at Cobb, numerous restaurants and most major chain stores located along Barrett Parkway southeast of the city.