Atlanta, GA is a huge city with many interesting sites. My wife and I have been to the famous High Museum and Fernbank Science Museum countless times. She has also been to the amazing Fox Theater, another of Atlanta's crown jewels, while I have not had the opportunity to do so. I would love to visit her sometime.

We've both been to the Atlanta Aquarium, but she got the full tour once, while I was there for a special event and didn't see the whole facility. I'll have to do that again another day.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to visit two more of Atlanta's gems: the Tellus Science Museum and the Booth Western Art Museum. They are located on opposite sides of an exit north of Cartersville, about 45 minutes north of Atlanta, on I-75.

My wife used to work for the Cartersville Herald-Tribune, so I knew the area, but I had not had the opportunity to visit these two museums before. I wrote about that visit in a previous column.

They were both amazing places and I'm so glad I finally got to see them! The reason for this was a road trip I took one weekend about ten years ago when I was asked to take three international students from Armstrong State University to a Rotary-sponsored weekend event in Clayton County, which gave me two days of free time in between. I took them there on a Thursday morning and brought them back to Savannah on Sunday afternoon. (That's another story.)

I found the Booth Western Art Museum north of Cartersville particularly interesting. I had never been to a museum that specialized in art about the American West before; this was really something special! The man who collected these works (paintings, photos and statues, small to large) did a great job; I was blown away by the entire collection. I was so glad I made it a point to go there that day.

The same goes for the Tellus Science Museum across the street. Another wonder! I highly recommend visiting both museums. They are underrated treasures.

One of the most interesting places we visited in Atlanta itself was the Grant Park Zoo with its Civil War diorama. I have always been interested in history and have made several trips to Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield Park – an impressive site in itself – and Andersonville Park near Americus. But the Civil War diorama in Grant Park is a completely different experience.

It's been a few years since we were last in Grant Park. The diorama was closed for repairs and renovations for a few years, but the show we saw that day just blew me away.

The diorama itself is a huge, circular painting with the audience seated on a revolving stage. The show itself is a 3D narrative of the Battle of Atlanta in the final months of the American Civil War. The seating area rotates as the battle progresses, and different sections of the diorama are highlighted, and a narrator describes the scenes and the actions.

You can almost smell the smoke from the muskets and cannons while hearing the screams of the wounded and the neighing of the fallen horses. It was the most lifelike depiction of the smoke and screams of a real battle that I have ever witnessed. I left this two-hour show quite moved.

It was supposed to be “live history retold,” and that's exactly what it was. I've seen films of the chase of the Yankee locomotive “General” from Chattanooga, Tennessee, and videos of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain north of Atlanta. But I've never seen anything as uniquely moving as this Civil War diorama show in Grant Park.

You don't have to be a “history buff” like me to appreciate a performance like this. It was put together long before the advent of these giant movie screens that show 3D movies. It served its purpose and I highly recommend you visit this park and see it for yourself. I guarantee you will leave with a much deeper appreciation for the Battle of Atlanta that took place some 160 years ago.

Rafe Semmes is a proud graduate of the (original) Savannah High School and the University of Georgia. He and his wife live in eastern Liberty County and are long-time Rotarians.