Historic Clayton Walking Tour

Rabun County was created in 1819 when the Stte of Georgia dictted a treaty with the Cherokee Nation which removed the Native Americans. The county was named for a recently deceased governor, William Rabun. The land,which had been home to the Cherokees for thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans, was given to white settlers in a lnad lottery.

Clayton was made the county seat in 1823, but the town wasnot incorporated until 1909. Clayton's location on the ridgeline at the intersection of several creeks at been know by the Cherokee as the equivalent of the English word, "Dividings". it was the location of the convergence of several important Cherokee trails connecting villages to the north, east and west.