Blue Ridge Information
 
Situated in a valley surrounded by mountains and national forest, Blue Ridge, Georgia will steal your heart and feed your soul.  Clean air, clean water, breathtaking beauty at every turn makes Blue Ridge a place you will want to escape to over and over again.

Population:

Population (year 2000): 1,210,
Est. population in July 2002: 1,209 (-0.1% change)
Males: 550 (45.5%), Females: 660 (54.5%)

Geography: Elevation: 1722 feet, Land area: 2.2 square miles

Average Air Temperature:

History of Fannin County

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. José de Urrea in the battle of Coleto. Fannin surrendered his force of about 400 men, who were later massacred.

Appalachia farmers in this area grew products that had to be taken to a mill and "cracked" before use, hence the term "cracker" was frequently applied. Agriculture, and the businesses supporting agriculture, have been (and still are) a mainstay of the Fannin County economy since its earliest days. After the Civil War cotton became a mainstay of the area. A push for diversification at the start of the 20th century greatly expand the types of crops raised. From the mid-1800's until the start of the 19th century mining also contributed to the economy, as did lumber from 1900 until World War II.
The Marietta and North Georgia Railroad made an economic decision to avoid Fannin's county seat of Morganton, building the railroad through the long, relatively flat Toccoa River Valley. Col. Mike McKinney founded the town of Blue Ridge in 1886 along the route of the railroad. When it arrived in Fannin County it gave the county a market for its agricultural products. What had taken days to deliver now took hours. In the early 1920's construction began on U. S. Highway 76, further increasing access to this once remote area.

Tourism picked up with the completion of the railroad to Blue Ridge, but this boon was short-lived. Starting in the 1950's tourism surged again in the county. With the completion of the Georgia Mountain Parkway in 1986 this trickle became a flood.

Much of the land in Fannin County is under Forest Service management. Beginning as the Cherokee and later the Georgia National Forest, today's Chattahoochee National Forest is a gem in Fannin County's crown. Managed for use by all Americans the land creates jobs, offers recreational opportunities and preserves ecologically sensitive areas from overuse.

Blue Ridge Mountains

Forming the eastern front of the Appalachian Mountains in the Southeastern United States the Blue Ridge Mountains cross the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. Beginning as a narrow strip of land south of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the geological Blue Ridge Mountains run northeast to southwest, rarely more than a few miles wide in Virginia (and only a mile wide at a point near Roanoke), North Carolina and South Carolina. When they reach Georgia in the extreme northeastern part of the the state, the formation of mountains turn to the west and widens, up to 60 miles in places. The Blue Ridge Province, a geographical area that includes other mountain ranges also extends from Pennsylvania to Georgia including the states of West Virginia and Tennessee with those that hold the geological Blue Ridge.

Long, parallel ridges, separated by deep valleys define the Blue Ridge Mountains. A rise at the top of Wolfpen Ridge known as Brasstown Bald (Union and Towns County) is the highest point in the state. Other high mountains in Georgia are Blood Mountain, named because it was the site of a battle between the Creek and Cherokee, Tray Mountain and Rabun Bald. The Blue Ridge end in extremes: At the southern end is spectacular Amicalola Falls (Dawson County), tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi, the western end is a 2000 foot drop from Fort Mountain to the Great Valley (Murray County).

Slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains facing the coastal piedmont are generally steeper and more rugged than those facing the interior of the United States. Rocks from the eastern slope are among the oldest on earth, some exceeding 1.2 billion years and pre-dating the formation of the mountains. These mountains were formed in three major uplift phases, the first about a billion years ago, the second perhaps some 550 million years ago, and the final one about 300 million years ago. Other uplifts that were regional in nature occurred as well. Since that time water, wind, temperature and gravity have caused the fundamental erosion that created the Blue Ridge