Tallulah Falls Lower

Since the early 1800s, Tallulah Gorge and its waterfalls have been a tourist attraction. In 1882, Tallulah Falls Railway was built, increasing the accessibility of the area to tourists from Atlanta and south Georgia, and the gorge became North Georgia's first tourist attraction. Resort hotels and bars sprung up to serve the tourist trade, which, after the addition of the railway, swelled to as many as 2,000 people on Sunday alone. In 1883, tightrope walker Professor Leon crossed the gorge as part of publicity stunt for one hotel. On July 18, 1970, Karl Wallenda became the second man to walk across the gorge on a tightrope. In the 1910s, Georgia Railway and Power began building dams on the river. The town of Burton, Georgia was purchased and flooded as Lake Burton in 1919. Many area residents opposed the dams, including the widow of Confederate general James Longstreet, Helen Dortch Longstreet, who led a campaign in 1911 to have Tallulah Gorge protected by the state. The Georgia Assembly was unable to raise the $1 million dollars required to purchase the gorge. Although her campaign was not successful, it was one of the first conservation movements in Georgia. When the dam was completed in 1913, the roar of the Tallulah Falls (the roar could be heard for miles from the gorge) was quieted, and tourism dwindled. It was not until 1993 that the Tallulah Gorge State Park was created by Georgia governor Zell Miller in cooperation with Georgia Power. Although tourism promoters in the late 1800s described the word Tallulah as meaning "thundering waters" in Cherokee, it actually has no meaning in that language. The most likely source of the word is the Okonee (a branch of the Creek Indians) word Talula, which means "town." The Okonee People occupied northeastern Georgia and northwestern South Carolina for hundreds of years prior to the arrival of the Cherokees in the early 1700s.