managed to escape and flee before the trial had begun, but it was later concluded that Samuel McAdams was responsible for Havner's death. The appearance of the North Carolinian militia and the arresting of the ten Walton County officials effectively led to the collapse of the Walton County government because the county was too isolated from Georgia's main cities for a strong defense of the Georgian claim to be made. End of the war For two more years the governors of North Carolina and Georgia could not reach an agreement on the boundary line, so in 1807 they agreed to a joint commission to resolve the quarrel. The two leaders of the survey, Joseph Caldwell, president of the University of North Carolina, and Joseph Meigs, president of the University of Georgia, concluded that the entire Orphan Strip rested inside North Carolina's territory. Although Georgia ignored the commission's findings and continued to govern until 1811, North Carolina gave amnesty to everyone who had supported Walton County during the war. Georgia finally admitted defeat in 1818 with the creation of a new Walton County elsewhere within its territory, and that county still exists. Ellicott's Rock Because Georgia was not willing to accept the 1807 commission's conclusion, Georgia hired prominent surveyor Andrew Ellicott to survey the boundary once again. Ellicott reinforced what the commission had found and marked the location of the border at Ellicott's Rock on the east bank of the Chattooga River. The orphan strip after the war North Carolina took official governorship of the Orphan Strip in 1811, and in 1838 it was made into part of Henderson County. In 1861, pieces of Jackson County and Henderson County were split off to create present-day Transylvania County, where the Orphan Strip is located today. 1971 revival In 1971, in what some press reports called a symbolic, humorous dispute, the two states briefly revisited the issue. A Georgia legislative panel declared that the state did in fact have authority over part of the old Orphan Strip. North Carolina legislators responded by authorizing the governor to mobilize the National Guard to defend the area, but no troops were mobilized. The matter was soon allowed to drop again, with no change to any boundaries. In 1992 the state of North Carolina erected a historical highway marker along U.S. Route 276 southeast of Brevard to commemorate the dispute. References Works cited External links "The Walton