Pickens County, Georgia sits at the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains (at the southern end of the Appalachians). The Cherokee Indians populated this area of North Georgia from the late 1700s until the 1830s when the land was distributed to European settlers. In 1838 and 1839 U.S. troops, prompted by the state of Georgia, expelled the Cherokee Indians from their ancestral homeland in the Southeast and removed them along the “Trail of Tears” to the Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma.
The Georgia General Assembly passed an act on December 5, 1853, to create Pickens County from portions of Cherokee and Gilmer Counties. Named for American Revolutionary War General Andrew Pickens, the county received several more land additions from Cherokee (1869) and Gilmer (1858 and 1863); and several sections of Pickens were transferred to other counties including Dawson, Gordon and back to Cherokee.
A little known fact is that for almost a month after Georgia seceded, the Union flag flew from the Court House.
Renowned for its exceptionally pure marble, most of Pickens County's early industry revolved around marble mining. Henry Fitzsimmons established the first marble quarries and the first marble mill in the 1830s.
Pickens County marble was used in buildings across the U.S. including:
- The Lincoln Memorial
- House Office Building
- East Wing of the National Gallery of Art
- National Air and Space Museum
- New York Stock Exchange Annex
- Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank
- Chicago’s Buckingham Fountain
- Florida’s Bok Sing Tower
The marble is also used for tombstones for the United States military. Locally, in Tate, Georgia, the elementary school is built of Georgia marble.
Pickens is one of the few places in the world where pink marble is found. Also in Tate, the Tate House, originally a private residence, and now an event venue, is built with our pink marble.
For a complete list of our historic buildings, click here...
Mount Oglethorpe, our highest peak at 3,288 ft, was the original Southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. Other notable peaks include Sharp Mountain and Sharp Top Mountain. One of the best viewpoints of Sharp Top Mountain is from Grandview Lake Dam on Grandview Road. From the Burnt Mountain Overlook, you can see Atlanta on a clear day.
When you visit Pickens County you can discover the history of the Native Americans; observe the tools, houses and living conditions of the early settlers and discover the life of Georgia’s first people. One day per year during the Georgia Marble Festival, the quarries open to the public for tours.