Blue Ridge Mountains

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Cherokee Indians controlled the area today known as Fannin County when the first white settlements appeared. Unlike much of the rest of Georgia, Fannin County's first settlers did not come from the East, but from the north. Written accounts date these earliest settlements to 1790. Crossing the Appalachian Mountains to Fort Loudon (now Tennessee), the first settlers followed the Tennessee River south, where they took the Ocoee-Toccoa to the wide, fertile valley that separates the Cohuttas and the Blue Ridge Mountains in Fannin County. Coastal Georgians began to push the Cherokee further west and this land was surrendered by the Cherokee in 1835 under the terms of the Treaty of New Echota. In 1838 the Cherokee were forced to leave in a travesty today known as the Trail of Tears. Fannin County was created in 1854 from portions of Union County and Gilmer County, with Morganton as the first county seat. Col. James Fannin, for whom the county is named, was a hero in the Texas War for Independence. Ordered by Sam Houston to pull back from a fortified position in Goliad, Fannin was surrounded by forces under the command of Gen. Jose de Urrea in the battle of Coleto. Fannin surrendered his force of about 400 men, who were later massacred.

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