The Liberty Bell Pool at F.D. Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain, Georgia, opened its 2026 swim season on May 27 and will run Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. until August 2, before shifting to a weekends-only schedule that closes out Labor Day weekend. General admission is $7, with discounts for seniors, very young children, and military ID holders.
What sets this pool apart from the thousands of municipal swimming holes that opened across the United States in the same decade is that almost none of those are still operating. The Liberty Bell Pool has served generations of visitors for over eight decades, and it is still drawing swimmers because of who built it, what they built it from, and where its water comes from.
The Pool the New Deal Built
The pool sits inside Georgia’s largest state park, an institution that owes its existence to the same president whose name it carries. Young men of the Civilian Conservation Corps constructed much of the present state park, including the Liberty Bell Pool, the Roosevelt Lodge, several cabins, the 15-acre Lake Delanor and its companion, the 25-acre Lake Franklin. Because of the well-preserved CCC design, layout, and buildings of the western half of the park, and for its association with Roosevelt, the area was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1997.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt had a personal stake in the place. He first visited the nearby town of Warm Springs in 1924 seeking relief from polio, eventually building the Little White House where he died in April 1945. The men of Company 4463 GA SP-13, who developed a state park on Pine Mountain, even had the distinction of serving as President Roosevelt’s honor guard during his visits to nearby Warm Springs for polio therapy.
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC, a federal work-relief program created in 1933 to employ young unmarried men during the Great Depression) operated from 1933 to 1942. The Liberty Bell Pool itself was started in 1933 and completed in 1941. Two sources at the park give slightly different finish dates, with Explore Harris County noting the first swim occurred in 1941 and Georgia State Parks describing the pool as completed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1942. The gap reflects how these projects rolled into use before formal completion paperwork closed out.
How a Mountain Spring Keeps a 500,000-Gallon Pool Cold
The pool’s hydraulics are the reason it can still operate cheaply enough to justify a $7 ticket. There is no chiller, no heated reservoir, no recirculation contract with a municipal water utility. There is a spring at the base of Pine Mountain that runs cold year-round, and gravity does the rest.
King’s Gap Spring contributes about 175,000 gallons of fresh water per day to the 500,000-gallon pool, which means the pool effectively turns over its volume roughly every three days through natural inflow alone. The water leaves cooler than most swimmers expect.
- 500,000 gallons, the pool’s total capacity, fed continuously by mountain springs rather than treated municipal supply.
- 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, the typical water temperature even on a 90-degree afternoon, sharp enough that swim shoes and a slow entry are routine advice from park staff.
- 2 lifeguards minimum, the staffing floor at $30 cash per lifeguard for groups, with one additional lifeguard required for every 25 swimmers above the 50-swimmer base, per the Georgia State Parks pool page for F.D. Roosevelt.
That arithmetic, free water in, paying swimmers out, is what no municipal pool built in 2026 can replicate. New public pools depend on treated city water at metered rates and on chemical recirculation systems whose operating costs determine ticket prices. The Liberty Bell’s operating model was set in 1933 and has not needed an update since.
Hand-Laid Quartzite and the CCC’s Signature
The construction material is local in a way modern projects rarely manage. The Pine Mountain Ridge, which extends into Alabama, is composed of quartzite rock formations. It is geologically a feature of the Piedmont Plateau, not the Appalachian Mountains farther north. The pool’s deck and walls were carved from Hollis quartzite, the same stone the ridge is made of, quarried within walking distance of the build site and laid by hand.
The result has a visual signature that newer poured-concrete pools cannot fake. The bell-curve outline of the basin, designed to echo the Liberty Bell silhouette, is set in mortared natural stone that varies in color and surface texture from one panel to the next. The deck and pool are constructed from natural stone, which may be uneven, so please use caution. Swim shoes are recommended for walking around the facility.
The labor model behind that handwork is part of what gives CCC pools their durability. Men acquired skills that, for many, led to careers or prepared them for service in World War II, and the $30 per month they earned ($25 went home to families) helped loved ones survive the dark days of the Great Depression. At its peak, the CCC had 500,000 men employed at once and provided work for a total of more than 3 million men throughout its nine-year run. A program of that scale could afford craftsmanship that no contemporary public-works budget would tolerate, and the pools they left behind have outlasted almost everything built to looser standards in the decades since.
How the Liberty Bell Stacks Up Against Other CCC Pools
Georgia is not the only state with a 1930s spring-fed pool still selling tickets, but the surviving examples form a small club. The two most-cited counterparts are Balmorhea State Park in West Texas and the Black Moshannon-era pools documented by Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation office, plus the older privately built Venetian Pool in Coral Gables, Florida, which predates the CCC entirely.
| Pool | Builder & Year | Water Source | Distinguishing Trait |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liberty Bell Pool, Georgia | CCC, completed 1941-1942 | King’s Gap Spring, mountain | Bell-shaped, Hollis quartzite stone |
| Balmorhea, Texas | CCC, 1930s | San Solomon Springs, desert | Largest spring-fed pool in the world |
| Venetian Pool, Coral Gables | George Merrick, 1924 | Refilled daily from aquifer | Built from a coral rock quarry |
| Dormont Pool, Pennsylvania | Municipal, 1937 | Municipal water supply | 57,000 sq ft, no spring source |
Balmorhea offers crystal-clear water of the world’s largest spring-fed swimming pool. The Civilian Conservation Corps built Balmorhea State Park in the 1930s. Nearly 80 years later, people are still cooling off at our park. The Liberty Bell is the largest spring-fed pool in Georgia and a National Historic Landmark in its own right, and the comparison is less about size than about the rarity of public amenities still running on their original 1930s capital plan.
Hours, Admission, and What to Know Before You Go
The 2026 schedule is split into two distinct runs, with prime summer days giving way to a weekends-only stretch that closes on Labor Day weekend. Pricing is held at long-running rates that make the pool one of the cheaper day outings in the region.
- Peak season: May 27 through August 2, open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Late-season weekends: August 8 through September 6, Saturdays and Sundays only, same hours.
- General admission: $7 adults, $5 seniors, $3 for children under three, $6 with a Military ID.
- Park office contact: 706-663-4858 for group rentals and the staffed-lifeguard arrangement noted earlier.
- Address: 2970 Georgia Highway 190, Pine Mountain, GA 31822, in the western section of the park near the Highway 354 entrance.
Visitors who have not been before tend to underestimate two things. The first is the water temperature, which one returning swimmer described as feeling like “a reverse-sauna” even on hot afternoons. The second is the deck, which is uneven hand-cut stone rather than smooth poured concrete; the park’s official guidance recommends water shoes, and several reviews note the basin floor varies in depth without modern zero-entry contouring.
The park itself is worth budgeting time for. There are several ways to explore the 9,049 acre state park. The roads that access the park are among the most beautiful in the state, plus there are more than 40 miles of hiking and equestrian trails. The best known of the park’s trails is the 23-mile Pine Mountain Trail.
Dog Splash Day Closes the Season
Once the swim season ends for humans, the pool has one more event on the calendar. The Liberty Bell Pool Dog Splash is scheduled for Saturday, September 5, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. It is the only afternoon of the year when the basin is given over to dogs and their owners.
Music, contests, and activities round out the two-hour window. Humans stay on the deck; the pool itself is the dogs’ territory. For dog owners in the region, it has become a small annual ritual, and several Georgia state parks have copied the format in the years since the FDR park ran the first one.
For anyone planning around the schedule, the Dog Splash is the symbolic close of the swim season at Pine Mountain. After September 6, the pool drains until the next Memorial Day weekend, and the spring at the base of the mountain keeps running into the basin all winter regardless, refilling a National Historic Landmark for a season that will not start again for another eight months.
Frequently Asked Questions
When Does the Liberty Bell Pool Open and Close in 2026?
The pool opened Wednesday, May 27, 2026, and runs Wednesday through Sunday until August 2, with hours from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. A late-season schedule runs August 8 through September 6 on Saturdays and Sundays only. The Dog Splash event closes the calendar on September 5.
How Much Does Admission Cost?
General admission is $7, senior citizens pay $5, children under three years old pay $3, and admission with a Military ID is $6. Group rentals after hours require a separate arrangement with the park office, with lifeguards billed at $30 cash per guard.
How Cold Is the Water?
Water temperatures average between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit because the pool is continually refilled by King’s Gap Spring at roughly 175,000 gallons per day. Even when air temperatures hit the 90s, the water stays cool enough that most swimmers ease in rather than diving.
Why Is the Pool Shaped Like the Liberty Bell?
The original CCC design used a curvy linear shape meant to echo the silhouette of the Liberty Bell, hand-laid in local Hollis quartzite stone. The shape is part of why the pool was included in the National Historic Landmark District designation in 1997, alongside other CCC-built park structures.
Is the Pool Suitable for Young Children?
There is a separate shallow children’s area approximately two feet deep, with the main pool ranging from three feet at the shallow end to seven feet at the deepest. The deck and pool walls are uneven natural stone, so the park recommends swim shoes and close supervision for small children.
Can Dogs Use the Pool?
Dogs are not allowed during the regular swim season, but the annual Liberty Bell Pool Dog Splash on September 5 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. opens the pool to dogs. Call the park office at 706-663-4858 for current rules and any registration details.
Where Is F.D. Roosevelt State Park Located?
The park is at 2970 Georgia Highway 190 in Pine Mountain, Georgia, about 30 miles north of Columbus and roughly 75 to 80 miles southwest of Atlanta. The pool sits near the Highway 354 entrance in the western, National Historic Landmark portion of the park.
