Historic Sites in Walker County

The history of Walker County

Walker County was established on December 18, 1833, from land that had belonged to the Cherokee Nation, and it was named for Freeman Walker, an Augusta lawyer who served in the U.S. Senate. Its original territory was later divided to help form Dade, Chattooga and Catoosa counties. The county seat, LaFayette, was incorporated as Chattooga in 1835 and renamed the following year for the Marquis de Lafayette. After the 1832 land lottery parceled out Cherokee lands, settlers, many of them poor farmers from Virginia and the Carolinas, moved into the valleys. In Rossville stands a two-story log house built in 1797 by John McDonald, grandfather of John Ross, who lived there from boyhood and served for decades as principal chief of the Cherokee before being forced west on the Trail of Tears. Although county voters opposed secession in 1861, many residents volunteered for the Confederacy, and the war arrived in force in September 1863 with the Battle of Chickamauga; fighting returned at LaFayette in 1864. Hardship drove many families away, and the population did not regain its 1850 level until 1890. That same year Congress established Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park, the first national military park in the country. Manufacturing, including carpet production, later became the backbone of the local economy.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiahistory.comnps.gov