Editing Stephens County, Georgia (section)

===United States era===
[[File:Alexander Stephens.jpg|thumb|left|Alexander Stephens, namesake of Stephens County]]
It was not until after the American Revolutionary War that European Americans began to settle here. The first were veterans who had been given land grants in lieu of pay; they migrated up the [[Savannah River]] and the [[Tugaloo River]] after the war. During the [[American Civil War]], the [[Battle of the Narrows]] was fought in what would become the county.

The county was created on August 18, 1905, from parts of [[Franklin County, Georgia|Franklin]] and [[Habersham County, Georgia|Habersham]] counties, and was named for [[Alexander Stephens]], [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. representative]], [[Vice President of the Confederate States of America]], and fifty-third [[List of governors of Georgia|governor of Georgia]].
[[File:Downtown_Toccoa,_Georgia,_aerial_view_2.jpg|thumb|Aerial image of Toccoa]]
Toccoa was designated as the county seat and was the site of the county's two courthouses. The first courthouse was built in 1907 and is now listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Georgia|National Register of Historic Places]]. The second was built in 2000.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=REtEXQNWq6MC&pg=PA250 | title=Historical Gazetteer of the United States | publisher=Routledge | date=May 13, 2013 | access-date=November 30, 2013 | author=Hellmann, Paul T. | pages=250| isbn=978-1135948597 }}</ref> The former courthouse is now used for county elections.

Despite the [[Great Depression]], more industry developed in the county in the 1930s. J&P Coats Company purchased the Capps Cotton Mill in 1937 and operated it for nearly 70 years, before textile manufacturing jobs moved offshore to cheaper labor markets. In 1938, industrialist [[R.G. LeTourneau]] opened a manufacturing plant for earth-moving equipment. Later that year, the Toccoa Airport was constructed. During World War II, the LeTourneau plant produced equipment for use by the military, employing 2,000 people in this effort. In addition, the U.S. Army developed Camp Toccoa here, for training paratroopers.<ref name="stephens"/>

Beginning in 1950, planning began for what was called the Hartwell Project, which envisioned dams on the Savanna and tributary rivers for flood control and hydropower generation. In addition, a large reservoir would be created, known as [[Lake Hartwell]].

Prior to the flooding of this area by Lake Hartwell, produced behind the Hartwell Dam on the Savannah River, archeological studies were conducted in 1958 of known prehistoric and historic sites in the area. Among them, the Tugaloo Mound and village site by a team from the [[University of Georgia]]. The mound is still visible above the water, and a historic marker on Highway 123 at the Georgia-South Carolina border helps mark this spot.<ref name="stephens">{{cite web|url=https://www.stephenscountyga.com/history.cfm|title=History (Stephens County)|publisher=Stephens County, GA|date=n.d.|access-date=January 25, 2021}}</ref>[[File:Tugaloo Town.jpg|thumb|Historic Plaque Tugaloo Town, Georgia, USA]]

On November 6, 1977, the earthen [[Kelly Barnes Dam]] collapsed after a period of heavy rainfall. The resulting flood swept through the campus of Toccoa Falls College, killing 39 people and causing $2.8&nbsp;million in damage.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tfc.edu/tfc-remembers-the-flood/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160108002231/http://www.tfc.edu/tfc-remembers-the-flood/|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 8, 2016|title=TFC Remembers the Flood {{!}} Toccoa Falls College|date=January 8, 2016|access-date=March 22, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www2.usgs.gov/water/southatlantic/ga/flood/toccoa/index.html|title=USGS South Atlantic Water Science Center - The 1977 Toccoa Flood, Report of Failure of Kelly Barnes Dam Flood and Findings|last=USGS|first=Brian McCallum|website=www2.usgs.gov|language=en|access-date=March 22, 2018}}</ref>