Rabun County is host to four houses on the National Register of Historic Places. Two became inns, or boardinghouses as they once were called, as a direct result of the Tallulah Falls Railroad. One is a farmhouse, serving as a vivid reminder of how poor, subsistence farmers lived in the Georgia mountains in the late
A Rabun County mountain man from Tiger, Thomas E. Roane was not an electrical engineer. In fact, he had no college education at all. But that did not stop him from engineering and building the first power generating system to bring electricity to Clayton back in 1914. That was the same year Georgia Railway and
Clayton was barely a speck on the map. The few roads that existed were no more than old Cherokee trails. People caught vast numbers of jumping fish in baskets. An encyclopedic work published in 1849 provides a detailed snapshot of life in a rugged, remote and sparsely populated Rabun County within 30 years of its
The topics in the December 2020 edition of the Rabun County Historical Society’s Vintage Rabun newsletter are: Update on museum renovation and new website Depots of the Tallulah Falls Railroad Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format: 2020 Dec Vintage Rabun
The topics in the September 2020 edition of the Rabun County Historical Society’s Vintage Rabun newsletter are: Update on museum renovation and new website People who made a difference: Sheriff Luther Rickman and Justice Logan E. Bleckley Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format: 2020 Sept Vintage Rabun
Clayton, Ga.—October 2, 2020—The Rabun County Historical Society is asking area residents to donate or loan a moonshining still to its museum in downtown Clayton as part of a wide-ranging effort to expand the museum’s permanent collection. At one time, Rabun County was the moonshine capital of Georgia. Moonshining also was one of the county’s
Impassable roads (where roads even existed) and isolated communities shaped the development of Rabun County’s postal system in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In the absence of decent roads, post offices had to be located within easy reach of the county’s many small communities. A round trip by horse and buggy from Rabun Gap
The Rabun County Historical Society’s museum in downtown Clayton has been closed while undergoing an extensive renovation to accommodate important new exhibits. The Society expects to reopen the museum in the spring of 2021. The renovation was undertaken to organize exhibits around the major developments and themes that have shaped the history of Rabun County
Only seven teachers had a tenth grade education. Schools lacked desks, books charts and maps. Many children were unable to comprehend what they read. School buildings were in varying states of disrepair. This snapshot of Rabun County’s 29 community schools emerged in 1914 when Georgia undertook a survey to assess the quality of education in
The railroad lost money practically every year from its inception in 1897. Collapsing wooden trestles plunged trains into deep ravines. Its wood-burning steam engines were antiquated. Many locals dubbed the Tallulah Falls Railroad the “Total Failure.” But the importance of the TFRR is inestimable. Northeast Georgia had few passable roads by the late 1800s. The
It was a grand vision of economic development cut short by the Civil War. That is the story of the Blue Ridge Railroad. No freight cars ever ran through its roadbed and long tunnels, the remnants of which are still visible in Rabun County and South Carolina. The Blue Ridge was never completed, making Rabun
The Day 50 Years Ago When Karl Wallenda Walked a Tightrope Across Tallulah Gorge (But He Wasn’t the First) By Richard Cinquina How do you revive interest in a resort town featuring spectacular waterfalls plunging through a 750-foot-deep gorge? Why, obviously, you would hire a 65-year-old daredevil to walk across the gorge on a tightrope.
Buggy Repairs, Flavo Flour and Hotel Rooms with Sewerage: Clayton Business Advertisements in 1920 By Richard Cinquina Described as a ramshackle town in the early 1900s, Clayton had attained a degree of prosperity by 1920. Overall conditions had improved significantly from the village’s poverty and neglect at the advent of the twentieth century. Tourists, courtesy
When executives of an Atlanta electric utility peered into Tallulah Gorge in 1909, they quickly saw the answer to their problem. A growing Atlanta was hungry for electricity. The Tallulah River roaring through the gorge would power a hydroelectric generating plant. Every kilowatt of that electricity would be transmitted to Atlanta. Problem solved. However, an
On a moonlit night on Lake Burton, some say you might hear the pealing of a church bell. It would not be coming from a nearby church. Rather, the mournful tolling is said to be an echo from 100 years distant when that bell was ringing in Burton, the town that lays submerged under the
It was illegal to allow cattle to run loose through Clayton. Dumping chicken coops on streets also was strictly prohibited. These two laws from the 1930s, among many others, provide a glimpse into the life of a country village nine decades ago. During the Depression 30’s, Clayton was a tiny farming town. Poverty was the
Tulip poplars with girths of seven feet. Tens of thousands of clear-cut acres. A sawmill cutting 13 miles of boards every day. These startling facts tell the story of what was once Rabun County’s largest industry: the environmental disaster known as industrial-scale logging. Rabun Logging Started in 1890s Logging on an industrial scale began in
One said he could hear a rattling noise in his head. The other claimed he killed in self-defense. These two men were the only convicted murderers ever hung in Rabun County. Both hangings took place in Clayton more than a century ago. The first was held in the privacy of the jail. The second was
Moonshining is Rabun County’s oldest industry. And at one time it probably was the county’s largest. Rabun County also held the distinction of being the moonshine capital of Georgia. Poverty has been a fact of life in mountainous Rabun County throughout much of its history. The Depression of the 1930s made the problem of rural
At the turn of the twentieth century, Clayton was barely a speck on the map with a recorded population of only 199. And one historical account paints a rather dismal picture of that tiny village. “Before the coming of the railroad, Clayton was a ramshackle town,” according to Rabun County historian Andrew Jackson Ritchie. “There
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81 North Church Street
Clayton, Georgia 30525
(706) 782-5292
