Historic Sites in Stephens County

The history of Stephens County

Stephens County was created on August 18, 1905, from parts of Franklin and Habersham counties, becoming Georgia's 143rd county. It is named for Alexander H. Stephens, who served in the state legislature and Congress, as vice president of the Confederacy and as governor of Georgia. Mississippian mound builders and later the Cherokee lived in these foothills, and Revolutionary War veterans began settling the area after 1783. Traveler's Rest, a tavern, trading post and inn in use before 1825, still stands as a relic of that frontier period. The county seat, Toccoa, takes its name from a Cherokee word said to mean "beautiful" and was laid out in 1873 along the Georgia Air Line Railroad between Atlanta and Charlotte, North Carolina. Rail access fueled rapid growth, and local manufacturing earned Toccoa the nickname "Furniture, Thread, and Steel City." During World War II the Army converted a Depression-era camp near Currahee Mountain into Camp Toccoa, where about 18,000 paratrooper recruits trained, including E Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, later known as the "Band of Brothers." Their conditioning runs up and down the mountain's three-mile trail became legendary, and the Currahee Military Museum in Toccoa's restored depot tells their story. Toccoa Falls, which plunges 186 feet, and Olympic weightlifting champion Paul Anderson are also part of the county's heritage.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orgstephenscountyga.gov