Walker County Chamber of Commerce

The History of Walker County, Georgia

Walker County was formed December 18, 1833 from Murray County, one of the ten original counties of the 1832 Cherokee Land Lottery. The lottery was Georgia's way of distributing to residents of Georgia the Cherokee Indian land acquired by purchase through treaties with the Cherokees.

Walker County is the state's 45th largest county, with a land area of 446 square miles among the rolling foothills and fertile valleys of northwest Georgia. It is bound on the north by Tennessee, on the east by Catoosa and Whitfield Counties, on the south by Chattooga County and on the west by Dade County and Alabama.

Incorporated as a county seat of Walker in 1834, the town of LaFayette is located near the center of the county. Originally chartered as Chattooga, LaFayette was named in honor of the famous French general, the Marquis de LaFayette. Rossville, incorporated in 1905, was named in honor of John Ross, Chief of the Cherokee Indian Nation. His boyhood home built by his grandfather, still stands in Rossville. The City of Chickamauga was incorporated in the early 1890's and was named for Chickamauga Battlefield, near the original Gordon Lee House, which still stands.

In addition to the John Ross House, many other historical attractions may be found in Walker County. Fort Cumming, where the Cherokee Indians were stockaded until their removal to the West, was built in 1836 on the northwest edge of LaFayette. Lee and Gordon Mill, one of the oldest in the state, is located near Chickamauga. John B. Gordon Hall, a 162 year old red brick school, is also located in LaFayette. And outside Chickamauga is the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park, the oldest and largest military park in the country. It is the site of the Battle of Chickamauga which took place September 19 and 20, 1863, during the Civil War.