Toccoa Falls College

Toccoa Falls College is a fully accredited, Christian liberal arts college, located in Toccoa, Georgia, on the edge of the Piedmont region and in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The campus occupies 1,100 acres (450 ha), bordering the Chattahoochee National Forest and is home to Toccoa Falls a 186-foot (57 m) high waterfall. It is affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the Association for Biblical Higher Education.

History

Beginnings

In 1907, Toccoa Falls College was founded by R. A. Forrest in the community of Golden Valley, North Carolina, as the Golden Valley Institute. On January 1, 1911, Forrest bought the Haddock Inn and 100 acres (400,000 m²) of land. In October, he relocated the school to near Toccoa, Georgia, in order to be near a mainline railroad. He renamed the school Toccoa Falls Institute and added secondary school courses to the theological classes. A 1913 fire destroyed the Haddock Inn, which was the classroom and residence building. After operating in tents for a time, the school built a new campus. In 1928 the secondary courses were reorganized and the state of Georgia accredited it as Toccoa Falls High School, which remained open until 1976. In 1937, the state of Georgia chartered the four-year college program and allowed it to grant the degree Bachelor of Arts in Biblical Education.

Toccoa Falls

The Toccoa Falls waterfall, with a vertical drop of 186 feet (57 m), is located on the campus of Toccoa Falls College in Stephens County, Georgia. Toccoa is the Cherokee word for "beautiful".

Status

Some claim that Toccoa Falls is the tallest free-falling waterfall in the Eastern United States, however, the waterfall does not hold that title. Crabtree Falls in Virginia (cascading 1,000 feet (300 m), including one 400-foot (120 m) drop), Fall Creek Falls in Tennessee (256 foot sheer drop) and Taughannock Falls in New York (215 foot sheer drop) are all taller. In addition, one other Georgia waterfall includes a drop that is taller: Cascade Falls includes a 262-foot (80 m) drop.

Dam break

During the early morning hours of November 6, 1977, after five days of almost continual rain, the dam that impounded the waters of Kelly Barnes Lake (located above the Toccoa Falls College campus) burst, and 176 million gallons of water surged through the campus below in the space of a few minutes. Most of the college personnel who lived in the path of the flood were asleep at the time, and 39 of them were swept to their deaths in the raging waters of Toccoa Creek. The dam was not rebuilt.