Cartersville is a small city about 45 miles northwest of Atlanta in Bartow County, a convenient stop between Atlanta and Chattanooga on I-75.
The main draw for visitors is Etowah Indian Mounds, one of the best-preserved pre-Columbian Native American sites in the eastern United States. The complex includes large platform mounds dating from 1000 to 1550 AD, a defensive ditch, and a museum displaying carved stone figures and shell gorgets found on site. Downtown, the Booth Western Art Museum has an impressive collection of Western American painting and sculpture — unexpectedly strong for a small Georgia city — along with a Civil War gallery and a presidential gallery with letters from every US president. South of the city, the Tellus Science Museum covers minerals, dinosaurs, and aviation. The corner of West Main has the world's oldest surviving outdoor Coca-Cola sign, painted in 1894.