Most visitors think of Blue Ridge as the anchor city of Fannin County but it didn’t exist until one of our residents built the railroad there. The McKinney’s lived in the white house next to Fightingtown Creek and had a mill and a general store. Mr McKinney persuaded a lot of important people to build a railroad to Fannin County and they housed the workers in the area around Blue Ridge and Mr McKinney began building a town there adjacent to the rail line.
Our area was almost Blue Ridge Lake too. The second road on the left as you turned on Hiway 2 to get here is called Power Dam Road. The original plan was to dam Fightingtown Creek to make a Power Dam for Blue Ridge. They started the dam and then changed plans to dam Toccoa River and make a much larger lake.
Moonshining was a common activity in this corner of the county. Frowned upon by many of the local pious community. They named these two areas Hell’s Holler and the Devil’s Den which are just north and south of our location… another reason for the name of our home Moonshadow Ridge.
Sally Ann Mountain my aunt said they named it that after a white trader’s wife who lived here and traded with the indians.
Epworth the next adjacent town was settled by Methodists who used the Cherokee ballground as a place to hold camp meetings. The reason the creek is called Fightingtown is white explorers saw the ballgames and thought they were fighting and called this area the Fightingtown. The Methodists have a special history about a camp meeting that was about to have to close because of a dispute with a the neighbor whose spring they were using for water He decided to withdraw his permission for them to use it. They planned to leave the next day and prayed all night for God’s answer. The next morning the spring had moved to the churches property.
The Methodist’s built a school for students who wanted more than the local one or two room schoolhouse. They called it Epworth seminary in the early 20th century. Today’s equivalent would have been a high school/junior college. A major fire destroyed a significant portion of the campus and the depression followed. The Methodist adminstration decided that Young Harris and Reinhardt colleges were sufficient to serve this area and closed the school and gave the property to the local school system.
Our area was almost Blue Ridge Lake too. The second road on the left as you turned on Hiway 2 to get here is called Power Dam Road. The original plan was to dam Fightingtown Creek to make a Power Dam for Blue Ridge. They started the dam and then changed plans to dam Toccoa River and make a much larger lake.
Moonshining was a common activity in this corner of the county. Frowned upon by many of the local pious community. They named these two areas Hell’s Holler and the Devil’s Den which are just north and south of our location… another reason for the name of our home Moonshadow Ridge.
Sally Ann Mountain my aunt said they named it that after a white trader’s wife who lived here and traded with the indians.
Epworth the next adjacent town was settled by Methodists who used the Cherokee ballground as a place to hold camp meetings. The reason the creek is called Fightingtown is white explorers saw the ballgames and thought they were fighting and called this area the Fightingtown. The Methodists have a special history about a camp meeting that was about to have to close because of a dispute with a the neighbor whose spring they were using for water He decided to withdraw his permission for them to use it. They planned to leave the next day and prayed all night for God’s answer. The next morning the spring had moved to the churches property.
The Methodist’s built a school for students who wanted more than the local one or two room schoolhouse. They called it Epworth seminary in the early 20th century. Today’s equivalent would have been a high school/junior college. A major fire destroyed a significant portion of the campus and the depression followed. The Methodist adminstration decided that Young Harris and Reinhardt colleges were sufficient to serve this area and closed the school and gave the property to the local school system.