Long before Tallulah Falls became a tourist mecca in the 1880s, Tallulah Gorge and its raging waterfalls was the domain of what Indians claimed was a race of ferocious “little people.” Hernando de Soto may have passed nearby in the 1540s. European traders were frequenting the area by the early 1700s, and a few hermits
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
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
The March 2022 newsletter includes photographs taken during the filming of “The Great Locomotive Chase” in Rabun County in 1955. Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format: 2022 March Vintage Rabun
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
Rabun County was remote and isolated, populated by subsistence farmers scratching out a living on hardscrabble mountain land. The Tallulah Falls Railroad opened Rabun and the surrounding region to the outside world. The TF also brought badly needed jobs. Working on the TF involved backbreaking labor for paltry wages, typically about one dollar per day.
The topics in the March 2021 edition of the Rabun County Historical Society’s Vintage Rabun newsletter are: Update on museum renovation Trestles of the Tallulah Falls Railroad Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format: 2021 March Vintage Rabun
Mountain City’s history is entwined with a Native American legend and a sheriff who saw the lucrative potential of a railroad. Our story starts centuries ago in the time of Notla, son of a Cherokee chief, who wanted to marry Hiawassee, daughter of a Catawba chief. Hiawassee’s father, who had no love for the Cherokees,
The topics in the December 2020 edition of the Rabun County Historical Society’s Vintage Rabun newsletter are: Update on museum renovation and new website Depots of the Tallulah Falls Railroad Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format: 2020 Dec Vintage Rabun
The railroad lost money practically every year from its inception in 1897. Collapsing wooden trestles plunged trains into deep ravines. Its wood-burning steam engines were antiquated. Many locals dubbed the Tallulah Falls Railroad the “Total Failure.” But the importance of the TFRR is inestimable. Northeast Georgia had few passable roads by the late 1800s. The
It was a grand vision of economic development cut short by the Civil War. That is the story of the Blue Ridge Railroad. No freight cars ever ran through its roadbed and long tunnels, the remnants of which are still visible in Rabun County and South Carolina. The Blue Ridge was never completed, making Rabun
At the turn of the twentieth century, Clayton was barely a speck on the map with a recorded population of only 199. And one historical account paints a rather dismal picture of that tiny village. “Before the coming of the railroad, Clayton was a ramshackle town,” according to Rabun County historian Andrew Jackson Ritchie. “There
Rabun County turns 200 years old on December 21, 2019. From its beginnings as a remote and sparsely populated frontier in 1819, the county has developed into a growing magnet for mountain tourists…with a thriving downtown in its county seat…and elegant homes dotting the shores of pristine lakes. To find out how this transformation happened,
Museum Exhibit Tallulah Falls Railroad: Opening Rabun County to the Outside World The Tallulah Falls Railroad was formed in 1881. Known as the Rabun Gap Route, this short-line railroad began in Cornelia, Georgia and was completed to Tallulah Falls in 1882. Crossing the Tallulah River in 1903, the railroad arrived in Clayton in 1904. It
The Rabun County Historical Society today announced that it has formed a partnership with the Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School through which an extensive collection of Tallulah Falls Railroad (TFRR) artifacts will be displayed on a permanent basis in the Society’s downtown Clayton museum. The railroad, which operated from 1897 to 1961 between Cornelia, Ga. and Franklin,
The topics in the June 2020 edition of the Rabun County Historical Society’s Vintage Rabun newsletter are: Tallulah Falls Railroad Artifacts Will Be Displayed in Society’s Museum Through a Partnership with Rabun-Gap Nacoochee School Creation of Black Rock Mountain State Park Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format 2020 June Vintage
The topic of the March 2020 edition of the Rabun County Historical Society’s Vintage Rabun newsletter is: Rabun’s Official Historic Sites Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format 2020 March Vintage Rabun (PDF)
The topic of the June 2019 edition of the Rabun County Historical Society’s Vintage Rabun newsletter is: Tallulah Falls Railroad: The History and The Legacy Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format 2019 June Vintage Rabun (PDF)
The topic of the September 2018 edition of the Rabun County Historical Society’s Vintage Rabun newsletter is: Tallulah Falls’ Grand Era of Tourism Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format 2018 Sept Vintage Rabun (PDF)
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81 North Church Street
Clayton, Georgia 30525
(706) 782-5292