Toccoa, Georgia
Toccoa is a city in and the county seat of Stephens County, Georgia, United States, located approximately 50 miles (80 km) from Athens and approximately 90 miles (140 km) northeast of Atlanta. The population was 9,323 at the 2000 census.
History
Native Americans, including the Mississippian culture Mound Builders and later the Cherokee, were the original inhabitants in what is now Toccoa and the surrounding area. The first residents of European descent were a small number of American Revolutionary War veterans who moved to the area when the war ended. The Georgia Land Lottery of 1820 spurred the migration of Scots-Irish from North Carolina and the Georgia coast. The Georgia Gold Rush, starting in 1828, and the 1838 removal of the Cherokee on the infamous "Trail of Tears" further changed settlement patterns in the area.
The Georgia General Assembly created Stephens County in 1905, and Toccoa was established as the county seat.
The name "Toccoa" is derived from the Cherokee term for "where the Catawbas lived." The city was established in 1873 around an area formerly called Dry Pond, named for a pond that was waterless most of the time.