Travel across several centuries of change in Northeast Georgia from the early American Indian tribes to the present day's unprecedented growth and expansion.

In the late 18th century, waves of intrepid settlers made their way down the Great Wagon Road into the virgin wilderness of Northeast Georgia to find new homes and opportunity for land and wealth. Against a dramatic mountainous backdrop, these pioneers carved out farms and small communities in perilous isolation and created an American experience vastly different from that of the plantation-style society established along Georgia's coast. Battling Creek and Cherokee warriors, government intervention, natural disasters, and a landscape not easily tamed, year after year, these men and women of Northeast Georgia stamped their self-reliance, their perseverance, and their industriousness upon generations to follow and upon the very geography they called home.

In Northeast Georgia: A History, readers will go inside the American Indian tribes that once made this place their hunting grounds to the present day when both industry and population grew. Truly a world unto itself, Northeast Georgia has served as a haven and destination for all classes over the past two centuries: the bold gold miners of 1829, the stalwart sustenance farmers, the social elite enjoying fresh mountain air at the many summer resorts, a multitude of businessmen seeking opportunity in railroading, cotton, lumber, and poultry farming and bootleggers finding the landscape convenient for clandestine whiskey-making and distribution. These stories and more provide insight into understanding a people and place unique in Georgia.

Local author Gordon Sawyer has composed a highly readable history of Northeast Georgia, one that will both educate and entertain. Supplemented by a striking collection of black-and-white illustrations, Northeast Georgia: A History captures the spirit of its people and the romance of its frontier setting, reminding today's readers of how special their ancestors, and their responses to a variety of challenges, were in developing this magnificent region.