TOCCOA

Colonial period

Indian agent Col. George Chicken was one of the first English colonists to mention Toccoa in his journal from 1725, calling it Toxsoah.

As early as 1740, the Unicoi Turnpike, an important Native American trading path, connected Tennessee to Savannah by way of Toccoa. The route began on the Savannah River, just below the entrance of Toccoa Creek. In 1830, it was converted to a toll road.

United States era

Americans first settled Toccoa 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. Travelers had to rely on using fords, and later ferries, to cross the Tugaloo River. James Jeremiah Prather built the swinging Prather's Bridge in 1804, but it was washed away during a freshet, an overflow caused by heavy rain.

Georgia conducted a 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.

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 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 American settlement.

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 house was built by his African-American slaves, 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. The soldiers pursued him to Riverside, 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.

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 to deliver a major speech, and finished at Warm Springs for a vacation.

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

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.

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.