Mountain History

Sawnee Mountain Stands! For thousands of years the mountain we call Sawnee has stood as a highly visible landmark and an anchor to inhabitants of North Georgia. It is arguably the southernmost summit in the Blue Ridge range, making it the first link in the Appalachian chain, which reaches all the way to Maine.

On the eastern ridge, runoff from boulders balanced on a rock outcropping slowly carved three uniform depressions in the stone. Those boulders eventually weathered, split and toppled down the north face, exposing what we now call the Indian Seats. The seats and the adjacent natural clearing may have served some ceremonial purpose for Native American inhabitants (Woodlands culture, later replaced by Mississippian, Muscogean, Creek and Cherokee) dating as far back as c. 500 B.C.E.

When white settlers entered the area in the early 1800’s, a minor chief of the Cherokee Nation welcomed them. A skilled carpenter and farmer, Sawnee helped them build their homes in the area around present-day Cumming. Settlers agreed that Sawnee was one of the kindest and most giving people they had ever known. When he died, the grateful local citizens named the mountain in his memory.

Even before the major strike at Auraria in 1829, gold had been discovered all over them thar hills and at several sites in present day Forsyth County. As late as the early 1900s, white settlers sunk pits and dug caves all over Sawnee Mountain looking for the yellow metal. The only promising sites were along the south face of the eastern ridge, but mining efforts were eventually abandoned because of the enormous cost of extracting the gold.

As the county grew, Sawnee Mountain remained virtually untouched by development until AT&T built a long line microwave transmission tower in the 1950s. Later, the Barker family built a home on the saddle of the west summit, and several more homes were eventually built.

Sawnee Mountain has survived fires, tornadoes, timber clearing, development and the search for gold. In the midst of whirlwind growth, Sawnee stands unchanged -- preserved for county residents and visitors to enjoy for generations to come.