Hiawassee is the county seat of Towns County, Georgia, United States. The community's population was 880 at the 2010 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 A United States fur trade factory was situated here between 1807 and 1811. Settled circa 1820, 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, after settlers violently removed the Cherokee communities living there prior in a night of massacre in 1776. Hiawassee was originally inhabited by predominantly Cherokee-speaking peoples, but the myth that the town was named after a Cherokee or otherwise Native American princess is false and is as mythical as the Cherokee princess herself. Hiawassee’s name is nature-based, as mentioned above. Geography Hiawassee is located on the Hiwassee River at (34.949428, -83.755078). According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , of which is land and (21.86%) is water. Hiawassee is approximately 2000 feet (609 m) above sea level. Demographics As of the 2010 United States Census, there were 880 people living in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 95.2% White, 0.3% Black, 0.1% Native American, 1.3% Asian and 0.3% from two or more races. 2.7% were Hispanic or Latino of any race. As of the census of 2000, there were 810 people, 355 households, and 203 families living in the town. The population density was . There were 527 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 97.40% White, 0.25% African American, 0.12% Native American, 1.73% Asian, 0.37% from other races, and 0.12% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.61% of the population. There were 355 households, out of which 14.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.6% were married couples living together, 10.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.8% were non-families. 40.3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 24.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.86 and the average family size was 2.39.