Although both the Creek and the Cherokee Indians called it home, Cherokee County was named for the Cherokee Indians. By 1824, following the election of George Troup as governor of Georgia, a self-avowed "indian hater", whites began to encroach on Native American land across the Chattahoochee. The forcible (sometimes at gunpoint) removal of the Cherokee people, leading up to the notorious Trail of Tears, began in this area in 1831. By the time gold was discovered what had previously been only a trickle of people moving onto Cherokee land had become a flood and a county known as Cherokee was formed on December 26, 1831 (The actual date of Cherokee County's creation is a matter of debate.) with 6900 square miles of territory. Almost immediately the state realized it had made a mistake creating a county so large and passed legislation that broke the original Cherokee County into 10 smaller political units (eventually 24 counties contained at least part of this land) - Forsyth, Union, Cherokee, Cobb, Lumpkin, Gilmer, Bartow, Murray, Floyd and Paulding plus a reconstituted and much smaller Cherokee County. In 1853 Cherokee County gave land to create Pickens County, and in 1857 gave land to become Milton (now Fulton) County.

From the manufacturing of jugs at Ballground, the attempted (but failed) efforts to raise silk worms in Canton in the hopes of developing a silk industry in Cherokee County, the old gristmills, wood carving and yarn spinning in Woodstock to Gold Mining and the title of “Broiler Capitol of the World” because of the growth of the poultry market, Cherokee County has a varied industrial past.

For information on the many sites and attractions in Cherokee County as well as festivals such as Riverfest held in late September, the Indian Festival and Pow Wow held in May, and Woodstock's Concert in the Park held the first Friday in June, July, August and September, visit some of the links on our Cherokee County Information page.

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