Toccoa is a city in far Northeast Georgia near the border with South Carolina. It is the county seat of Stephens County, Georgia, United States, located about from Athens and about northeast of Atlanta. The population was 9,133 as of the 2020 census. History Native Americans, including indigenous peoples of the Mississippian culture, and historic Yuchi (linked to the Muscogee Creek confederacy and later allies of the Cherokee), occupied Tugaloo and the area of Toccoa for at least 1,000 years prior to European settlement. The Mississippian culture was known for building earthen platform mounds; in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, the people developed some large, dense cities and complexes featuring multiple mounds and, in some cases, thousands of residents. In what is known as the regional South Appalachian Mississippian culture, by contrast, settlements were smaller and the peoples typically built a single platform mound in the larger villages. Salvage archeological studies were conducted by Dr. Joseph Caldwell of the University of Georgia in 1957, prior to flooding of this area after construction of a dam downriver. He determined the first settlement was founded about 800 CE and lasted to 1700, when the village was burned. By that time, it was occupied by proto-Creek who were descendants of the Mississippians. Colonial maps until the American Revolution identified this village as one of the Hogeloge people (now known as Yuchi). While they later became allies of the Cherokee, they were of a different ethnicity and language group. Colonial period Indian agent Col. George Chicken was one of the first English colonists to mention Toccoa in his journal from 1725, calling it Toxsoah. United States era European Americans did not settle here until after the American Revolutionary War, when the government gave land grants in lieu of pay owed to veterans. A group led by Col. William H. Wofford moved to the area when the war ended. It became known as Wofford's Tract, or Wofford's Settlement. Col. Wofford is buried near Toccoa Falls. His son, William T. Wofford, was born near Toccoa (then part of Habersham County). Travelers had to rely on using fords, and later ferries, to get across the Tugaloo River. The first Prather's Bridge was a swinging bridge built in 1804 by James Jeremiah Prather. The first bridge was washed away during a freshet (an overflow caused by heavy rain). Georgia conducted a Land Lottery of 1820, although the Cherokee