An unknown settler was given this land after the lottery. He decided not to live on it because the terrain proved to be too rugged. The state purchased the falls in 1911. Amicalola Falls State Park was not developed at all until the Georgia Appalachian Trail Club decided in 1958 that they would move the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail from Mount Oglethorpe to the nearby Springer Mountain. An trail was blazed from the base of Amicalola Falls to the top of Springer Mountain, so that Appalachian Trail hikers would be able to access the trail from a major highway.