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
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
The roar of the river cascading over Tallulah Gorge’s six waterfalls could be heard from over a mile away. And onlookers were shrouded in mist rising from the turbulent waters. That was before 1913. That was the year when Georgia Railway and Power, the predecessor of today’s Georgia Power, completed its hydroelectric dam at Tallulah
Rabun County turns 200 years old on December 21, 2019. From its beginnings as a remote and sparsely populated frontier in 1819, the county has developed into a growing magnet for mountain tourists…with a thriving downtown in its county seat…and elegant homes dotting the shores of pristine lakes. To find out how this transformation happened,
Museum Exhibit Dams and Hydroelectric Power: Progress at a Price The 1,200-foot drop in elevation along a contiguous 26-mile portion of the Tallulah and Tugalo rivers in Rabun, Habersham and Stephens counties was viewed as ideal for generating hydroelectric power for a growing Atlanta. Between 1913 and 1927, six hydroelectric dams and generating plants were
The topic of the September 2019 edition of the Rabun County Historical Society’s Vintage Rabun newsletter is: Helen Dortch Longstreet: Fighting Lady Use the link below to download the newsletter in PDF format 2019 Sept Vintage Rabun (PDF)
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Clayton, Georgia 30525
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