Clayton has been around a long time, probably longer than many people think. The town’s history begins with the Cherokees and ends, at least for now, with tourism and a Main Street lined with boutiques. A good deal has transpired in between. As the homeland of the Cherokees for hundreds of years, northeast Georgia was
One of the largest national forests east of the Mississippi owes its birth to an environmental disaster. The history of the Chattahoochee National Forest, which takes its name from the river whose headwaters rise in the north Georgia mountains, is the story of a phoenix rising, not from ashes but from a rubble-strewn landscape left
The history of the Tallulah Falls Railroad is part and parcel of the schemes of southern railroad builders in the nineteenth century to link the port city of Charleston with midwestern markets at Cincinnati. In 1835, South Carolinian John C. Calhoun, former U.S. vice president and staunch defender of slavery, was among the first to
Disputes over Georgia’s borders flared up periodically during the state’s early history. Most involved the 35th parallel north, which commonly was accepted as the shared boundary between Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee by the late 1700s. However, it was one thing to declare the 35th parallel a legal boundary, while it was altogether something else
A fire in a mechanic’s garage sparked a conflagration that burned the resort town of Tallulah Falls to the ground on a December night in 1921. The village had no fire department. Neither did any other town in Rabun County. If your house caught fire, it helped to have friendly neighbors, because that was the
There could have been a settlement of Seminole Indians atop Black Rock Mountain as a tourist attraction. There also could have been a bust of Franklin Roosevelt gazing down over Rabun County from the heights of the 3,640 foot mountain. Instead of these, the county became home to the highest state park in Georgia, Black
“He has never turned down a call. Cold winter nights, bad roads, long distances, have not kept Doc indoors when a call came. He feels as much urgency of the need in a shack twenty miles back in the mountains as on Main Street; and ministers with as much care to a grubby patient under
The history of Sky Valley is a story of risk-taking and national economic cycles. This explains why Sky Valley developed in a totally different way than anyplace else in Rabun County or northeast Georgia, for that matter. For one thing, Scots-Irish immigrants came to this part of Georgia in search of cheap farmland in the
Sinking Mountain is located about seven miles northwest of Tallulah Falls. Some people claimed the mountain was sinking a few inches every year. They swore you could feel the mountain moving under your feet. Others dismissed this claim as sheer nonsense. But we are getting ahead of our story about the Hostess of Sinking Mountain.
African-Americans were among the earliest residents of Rabun County. They were slaves. Rabun County was created by an act of the Georgia legislature in 1819. The new county’s land was offered to white settlers through the Land Lottery of 1820. Unique to Georgia, this lottery system distributed 250-acre parcels in the county’s river valleys, which
Confusion, outright blunders and armed conflict ultimately shaped the eastern and northern borders of Georgia following the colony’s creation in 1732. Border disputes with Florida and Alabama flared up during the nineteenth century, but none were as contentious as those involving Georgia’s boundaries with South and North Carolina. Given its location, the land that became
Although some politicians equate paying taxes with patriotic duty, few people celebrate their payments into the government till. That proved to be the case in 1907 when Rabun County’s Ordinary, the county’s chief executive responsible for everything from taxation to roads and bridges, ordered the imposition of a special tax to finance the construction of
At one time, Rabun County was dotted with nearly 30 gold mines as prospectors hoped to strike it rich with the yellow metal. Unfortunately for the Rabun miners with dollar signs dancing in their heads, more money was put into the ground than ever taken out. However, that was not the case elsewhere in north
Standing a lanky six-feet-five, Logan E. Bleckley was not known to frequent barbershops. His hair hung loosely around his shoulders, and his generous beard flowed down his chest. When asked about his appearance, he replied that Moses also wore his hair long, which also had the benefit of protecting his neck. Bleckley was a student
Mary Ann Rutherford was born in 1848 to an old southern family in Athens, Georgia. Her father was a mathematics professor at the University of Georgia, where she grew up living close to the campus. The future trajectory of her life was shaped by these influences. She graduated with honors from the Lucy Cobb Institute
An editorial in the Clayton Tribune once declared, “Robberies, fights, shootings, knifings, street scuffles. They are all part of the contemporary history of Rabun County and Clayton.” It sounded like this was a pretty rough and lawless place. While some serious crimes were committed, there is a lighter side to some of the criminal activity
Singing conventions with large, enthusiastic crowds were Rabun County’s rock concerts back in the day. Think hymnals instead of the Rolling Stones In reporting on the three-day Rabun County Singing Convention in 1931, the Clayton Tribune wrote, “The attendance on Friday was rather small but on Saturday the crowd had grown almost to the capacity
Short, weighing just over 100 pounds, highly intelligent and graced with a choirboy face, he was nicknamed for a small baitfish. He made up for his diminutive stature with guns and his willingness to use them. No jail could prevent him from escaping, but before one jailbreak, he ran a counterfeiting scheme behind bars. And
Located three miles south of Clayton, Tiger is home to about 400 people, give or take. Nestled at the foot of a cone-shaped, 3,000-foot mountain, the village is a tranquil place. But it wasn’t always that way. Tiger has a colorful history that belies the town’s diminutive size. Tiger’s history extends back to the time
By 1959, the Tallulah Falls Railroad was nearing the end of its run that began in 1887. Passenger service had long since been discontinued. Freight traffic was anemic. Debt in the millions of dollars was piling up. While the TF was still running, a writer for the Atlanta Journal and Constitution Magazine took what he
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81 North Church Street
Clayton, Georgia 30525
(706) 782-5292