The county was long inhabited by indigenous peoples. People of the
South Appalachian Mississippian culture developed a village and a
platform mound on Tugaloo Island about 800 CE. The village and mound, both known as Tugaloo, were later occupied by other peoples until about 1700. Numerous other villages also developed along the river and its tributaries. Descendants of the Mississippians have been identified as the proto-Creek (
Muscogee people). Allied with them in historic times were the
Yuchi, who occupied the village known as Tugaloo, where they were replaced by the Cherokee. While
Cherokee began to move into this area from Tennessee under pressure by European Americans during and after the Revolutionary War, the Muscogee Creek continued to dominate the southern part of the county until they ceded their land to the United States in a treaty of 1794.
United States era It was not until after the American Revolutionary War that European Americans began to settle here. The first were veterans who had been given land grants in lieu of pay; they migrated up the
Savannah River and the
Tugaloo River after the war. During the
American Civil War, the
Battle of the Narrows was fought in what would become the county. The county was created on August 18, 1905, from parts of
Franklin and
Habersham counties, and was named for
Alexander Stephens,
U.S. representative,
Vice President of the Confederate States of America, and fifty-third
governor of Georgia. Toccoa was designated as the county seat and was the site of the county's two courthouses. The first courthouse was built in 1907 and is now listed on the
National Register of Historic Places. The second was built in 2000. The former courthouse is now used for county elections. Despite the
Great Depression, more industry developed in the county in the 1930s. J&P Coats Company purchased the Capps Cotton Mill in 1937 and operated it for nearly 70 years, before textile manufacturing jobs moved offshore to cheaper labor markets. In 1938, industrialist
R.G. LeTourneau opened a manufacturing plant for earth-moving equipment. Later that year, the Toccoa Airport was constructed. During World War II, the LeTourneau plant produced equipment for use by the military, employing 2,000 people in this effort. In addition, the U.S. Army developed Camp Toccoa here, for training paratroopers. On November 6, 1977, the earthen
Kelly Barnes Dam collapsed after a period of heavy rainfall. The resulting flood swept through the campus of Toccoa Falls College, killing 39 people and causing $2.8 million in damage. ==Geography==