Editing Toccoa, Georgia (section)

==History==
[[File:Georgia - Toccoa - NARA - 23937177 (cropped).jpg|thumb|right|Toccoa, 1941]]
The Indigenous Nations of the [[Mississippian culture]], and historic [[Yuchi]], linked to the [[Muscogee]] Creek confederacy and later allies of the [[Cherokee]], occupied Tugaloo and the area of Toccoa for over 1,000 years prior to colonization.

The Mississippian culture was known for building earthen [[platform mound]]s. In the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, the people developed some large, dense cities and complexes featuring multiple mounds and, in some cases, thousands of residents. In what is known as the regional [[South Appalachian Mississippian culture]], by contrast, settlements were smaller and the peoples typically built a single platform mound in the larger villages.

Salvage archeological studies were conducted by Dr. Joseph Caldwell of the [[University of Georgia]] in 1957, prior to flooding of this area after construction of a dam downriver. He determined the first settlement was founded about 800 CE and lasted to 1700, when the village was burned. By that time, it was occupied by proto-Creek who were descendants of the Mississippians. Colonial maps until the American Revolution identified this village as one of the Hogeloge people, now known as [[Yuchi]]. While they later became allies of the Cherokee, they were of a different ethnicity and language group.

===Colonial period===
{{Quote box
| quote = "Saturday the 25th day of September 1725. About four of the Clock in the Afternoon came in the War hoop from Ouconey with a piece of a Scalp of one of the Enemies Scouts, giving an Accot that Scouts being in Number Twenty four that went out from old Estotoe, and Toxsoah having come upon the tracts of three of the Enemy found they were made downwards towards the other Towns (on wch) they Concluded to waylay the Path thinking by that means to Catch the Enemy being three in Number returning back to their old tracts near Estotoe from Town to Town."
| author = George Chicken
| source = Journal (quoted in ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=YyrYnSsvttgC&q=toxsoah+++++&pg=PA154 Travels in the American Colonies]'')
| width = 50%
}}
Indian agent Col. George Chicken was one of the first English colonists to mention Toccoa in his journal from 1725, calling it Toxsoah.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Mereness|first1=Newton Dennison|title=Travels in the American Colonies|date=1961|publisher=Antiquarian Press|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/travelsinameric01goog/page/n164 154]|url=https://archive.org/details/travelsinameric01goog|quote=toxsoah     .|access-date=4 October 2016}}</ref>

As early as 1740, the [[Unicoi Turnpike]], an important [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] trading path, connected [[Tennessee]] to [[Savannah, Georgia|Savannah]] by way of Toccoa.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Old Unicoi Trail and Unicoi toll road |url=https://sites.rootsweb.com/~gaunion/mm092905.htm |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=sites.rootsweb.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-06-01 |title=Uncovering A 200-Year-Old Road with Modern Technology |url=https://www.smliv.com/api/content/8c3244aa-f3f2-11ec-9969-12274efc5439/ |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=Smoky Mountain Living |language=en-us}}</ref> The route began on the [[Savannah River]], just below the entrance of [[Toccoa Creek]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sautee Nacoochee Center |url=https://www.snca.org/snc/museums/history/crossroads/historyTurnpikes.php |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=www.snca.org}}</ref> In 1830, it was converted to a toll road.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Unicoi Turnpike Historical Marker |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=25328 |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=www.hmdb.org |language=en}}</ref>

===United States era===
European Americans did not settle here until after the [[American Revolutionary War]], when the government gave land grants in lieu of pay owed to veterans. A group led by Col. William H. Wofford moved to the area when the war ended. It became known as Wofford's Tract, or Wofford's Settlement. Col. Wofford is buried near [[Toccoa Falls]]. His son, [[William T. Wofford]], was born near Toccoa, then part of [[Habersham County, Georgia|Habersham County]]. <!-- (He later served as an officer during the [[Mexican–American War]] and a [[General officer|general]] in the [[Confederate States Army]] during the [[American Civil War]].) As he has his own article, it dose not seem useful to introduce later 19th c. here -->

Travelers had to rely on using fords, and later ferries, to get across the Tugaloo River. The first Prather's Bridge was a swinging bridge built in 1804 by James Jeremiah Prather. The first bridge was washed away during a freshet, an overflow caused by heavy rain.

Georgia conducted a [[Georgia Land Lotteries|Land Lottery of 1820]], although the Cherokee had not yet ceded this area to the United States. Scots-Irish who acquired land in the lottery moved to this area from the backcountry of North Carolina and the Georgia coast. The [[Georgia Gold Rush]], starting in 1828, also attracted many new settlers to North Georgia.<ref>{{cite web|title="Gold Diggers' Road" historical marker|url=http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/historical_markers/county/lumpkin/gold-diggers-road|publisher=Digital Library of Georgia|access-date=5 June 2016|archive-date=August 15, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160815120726/http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/historical_markers/county/lumpkin/gold-diggers-road|url-status=live}}</ref>

European Americans pressed the government to take over the land of the Five Civilized Tribes, seeking cheaper land to develop for cotton plantations. Short-staple cotton, which could be grown in the uplands through this area, had become profitable since the invention of the [[cotton gin]] for processing it. At the urging of President [[Andrew Jackson]], Congress passed the [[Indian Removal Act of 1830]], authorizing the government to force cessions of land by Southeast tribes in exchange for lands west of the [[Mississippi River]], in what became known as [[Indian Territory]], now Oklahoma. The 1838 [[Cherokee removal|removal of the Cherokee]] on the infamous "[[Trail of Tears]]" extinguished most of their land claims to this area. The US government released former Cherokee and Creek ([[Muscogee]]) lands for sale and settlement by European Americans in Georgia.

A more substantial bridge was built across the Tugaloo River in 1850. That year James D. Prather supervised the construction of his plantation house known as Riverside, on a hill overlooking the upper [[Tugalo River]]. The Greek revival [[antebellum architecture|antebellum]] house was built by his enslaved African-American workers, and the timber for the house was harvested from his plantation. The Prather family cemetery was developed to the right of the house.

During the Civil War, General [[Robert Toombs]], a close friend of Prather, used this house as a refuge from Union troops.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Justice|first1=George|title=Robert Toombs (1810-1885)|date=2014|work=New Georgia Encyclopedia|url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/robert-toombs-1810-1885|access-date=May 2, 2016|archive-date=May 20, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160520050402/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/robert-toombs-1810-1885|url-status=live}}</ref> The soldiers pursued him to Riverside,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://focus.nps.gov/nrhp/GetAsset?assetID=2136d784-b7b1-428b-91ba-74c5aab26f74 |title=Riverside |access-date=May 10, 2016 |archive-date=July 1, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701014502/http://focus.nps.gov/nrhp/GetAsset?assetID=2136d784-b7b1-428b-91ba-74c5aab26f74 |url-status=live }}</ref> but he hid and escaped capture.

The Prather Bridge was burned in 1863 by Confederate troops during the Civil War to keep the Union enemy from crossing. James Jeremiah Prather and his son, James Devereaux Prather, rebuilt the bridge in 1868. This bridge lasted until 1918, when it was washed away. It was rebuilt in 1920 by James D. Prather. It was afterward replaced by a concrete bridge, but the wooden bridge was kept as a landmark. Vandals burned it down in 1978.

According to historical accounts, the Johns House, a Victorian cottage near Prather Bridge Road, was built in 1898. When the Georgia General Assembly created Stephens County in 1905, Toccoa was established as the county seat.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.stephenscountyga.com/history.cfm?lid=180 |title=StephensCountyGA.com |access-date=November 5, 2010 |archive-date=November 13, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101113211934/http://www.stephenscountyga.com/history.cfm?lid=180 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[President Franklin Delano Roosevelt]] visited Toccoa on March 23, 1938, during the [[Great Depression]]. Roosevelt's train made a brief stop there, and he made remarks from the rear platform of the presidential train. He traveled to [[Gainesville, Georgia|Gainesville]] to deliver a major speech, and finished at [[Warm Springs, Georgia|Warm Springs]] for a vacation.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/history/article/progressive-era-world-war-ii-1901-1945/fdr-extemporaneous-remarks-toccoa-march-23-1938|title=FDR Extemporaneous Remarks, Toccoa, March 23, 1938|newspaper=New Georgia Encyclopedia|publisher=Digital Library of Georgia|access-date=14 October 2016|archive-date=October 18, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161018230118/http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/history/article/progressive-era-world-war-ii-1901-1945/fdr-extemporaneous-remarks-toccoa-march-23-1938|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Camp Toccoa]] was developed nearby as a [[World War II]] [[paratrooper]] training base. It was the first training base for the [[506th Infantry Regiment|506th Parachute Infantry Regiment]] of the Army's [[101st Airborne Division]]. Its [[E Company, 506th Infantry Regiment (United States)|Easy Company]] was subject of the non-fiction book and an HBO miniseries adaptation of the same name: ''[[Band of Brothers (TV miniseries)|Band of Brothers]]''.

[[File:20-17-217-rest.jpg | thumb|220x124px | right|alt= Historical 19th-century Inn|Traveler's Rest]]

[[Travelers Rest (Georgia)|Traveler's Rest]], an antebellum 19th-century inn, known locally as Jarrett Manor, is located outside Toccoa. It stands near [[Lake Hartwell]], which was created by flooding an area of the [[Tugaloo River]] after completion of the [[Hartwell Dam]] in 1962. The inn has been designated as a [[National Historic Landmark]].

[[File:Toccoa Falls.JPG|thumb|right|Toccoa Falls]]

[[Toccoa Falls]] is located on the campus of [[Toccoa Falls College]]. The short 100-yard path to the base of the 186-foot (57 m) high natural waterfall is gravel-paved and easily walkable.