Life in Early Rabun County

Museum Exhibit

Life in Early Rabun County

Rabun County’s early settlers in the late 1700s and early 1800s were predominantly Scots-Irish, who brought with them their traditions, music, language and methods of survival. The county was isolated, sparsely populated and poor. Life in the mountains was harsh. Roads, if they existed at all, were treacherous and often impassable. Most people made a living through subsistence farming. Things started changing with the coming of the Tallulah Falls Railroad in the late 1800s, which opened the county to the outside world. Tourism and logging became significant industries, bringing a degree of prosperity to the county for the first time. The Great Depression of the 1930s brought extreme hardship to the county, causing many to take up moonshining to make badly needed money. Economic recovery gradually took hold after World War II, and today, the mountains of northeast Georgia have made Rabun County a major tourist destination.

Visit our Life in Rabun County Exhibit

Want to learn more about life in Rabun County? Visit our Museum to view this exhibit and many others that tell the stories that shaped Rabun’s history.