Editing Forsyth County, Georgia (section)

===Before European contact===
For thousands of years, varying indigenous cultures lived in this area along the Etowah River. Starting near the end of the first millennium, [[Mound Builders]] of the [[Mississippian culture]] settled in this area; they built earthwork mound structures at nearby [[Etowah Indian Mounds|Etowah]] in present-day [[Bartow County, Georgia|Bartow County]], and large communities along the [[Etowah River]] in neighboring [[Cherokee County, Georgia|Cherokee County]]. They disappeared about 1500 AD.

Members of the [[Iroquoian language|Iroquoian-speaking]] [[Cherokee Nation]] migrated into the area from the North, possibly from the [[Great Lakes]] area. They settled in the territory that would become Forsyth County and throughout upper Georgia and Alabama, also having settlements or towns in present-day Tennessee and western North Carolina.