Chattahoochee National Forest Information Kiosk

About forestry service, 30546, Hiawassee, GA, US, Georgia

Hiawassee is the county seat of Towns County, Georgia, United States. The population was 981 at the 2020 census. Its name is derived from the Cherokee—or perhaps Creek—word Ayuhwasi, which means meadow, (A variant spelling, "Hiwassee," is used for the local river and some other Appalachian place names.) Hiawassee is also known in the novel "Restart" by Gordon Korman. == History == Hiawassee was established along the route of the Unicoi Turnpike, a 1,000-year-old Native American trail. In the early 18th century, deerskins and furs were transported along the route from Tennessee to Savannah and Charleston for shipping to Europe. Hiawassee was originally inhabited by predominantly Cherokee peoples. The name of Hiawassee was originally derived from the Native American word ayuhwasi, meaning river and/or valley. A United States fur trade factory was built in present-day Hiawassee between 1807 and 1811. Settled by whites circa 1820 after settlers violently removed the Cherokee communities living there in a night of massacre in 1776, Hiawassee was designated seat of the newly formed Towns County in 1856. It was incorporated as a town in 1870 and as a city in 1916, .