9 LOOKING BACK Centuries of Travel Through the Rabun Gap From Mississippians and Explorers to a Turnpike and Railroad By Dick Cinquina - from the Rabun County Historical Society Geography is a key factor shaping the development of a country or region. As an island nation, England turned to the ocean and became the world’s greatest maritime power by the eighteenth century. American pioneers saw the endless flat expanses of the Great Plains and turned it into the country’s breadbasket. On a still smaller scale, Rabun County’s history has been shaped by the only natural gap in the southern Appalachians, the Rabun Gap. Not to be confused with the unincorporated town of Rabun Gap, this passageway through the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Rabun County provided a relatively easy way for Native Americans, European explorers, settlers and soldiers to travel between Georgia and North Carolina and Tennessee. The gap also facilitated construction of Rabun County’s first north-south road as well as a railway that ran from Cornelia to Franklin, North Carolina. For these reasons, the Rabun Gap has been likened to a centuries-old transit corridor.
A map showing a depiction of the various trails used by Native Americans
Mississippians and Cherokee The Mississippians, a Native American mounding building culture, are the first documented people to have traveled through the Rabun Gap, although earlier Eastern Woodland tribes preceded the Mississippians in this area by thousands of years. An archeological survey was conducted in 1998 in preparation for the widening of Highway 23/441 to four lanes. Shards of pottery uncovered at a site between Clayton and Tallulah Falls were identified as late Mississippian from A.D. 1300 to 1500. A small mound in Dillard also attests to the Mississippian presence in Rabun County. Given this evidence, the Mississippians likely traveled the length of this county through the Rabun Gap.
Dick Cinquina holds graduate degrees in history and journalism, making his work for the Rabun County Historical Society a natural fit for his interests. He is the retired president of Equity Market Partners, a national financial consulting firm he founded in 1981. In addition to writing monthly articles for the Georgia Mountain Laurel, Dick helped produce the Society’s new web site and is involved with the renovation of the group’s museum. After vacationing in this area for many years, he and his wife Anne moved to Rabun County in 2018 form Amelia Island, Florida.
100 www.gmlaurel.com - July 2021
