Town of Tallulah Falls

Where the Tallulah River made its magnificent drop into Tallulah Gorge, travelers made this area into a destination known far and wide as one of the most beautiful areas of the Eastern United States. The coming of the railroad in the late 19th century made this town a more accessible tourist mecca. Rufus Lafayette Moss, one of the men responsible for bringing the railroad to town, was also one of the founding commissioners of Tallulah Falls when it was first incorporated in 1885.

The Tallulah Falls Railroad was a 58 mile long “shortline” that eventually connected Cornelia, Georgia and Franklin, North Carolina. It reached Tallulah Falls in 1882 and Clayton by 1905, ushering in a tourism and lodging boom. The rail line was also critical to the birth of the logging industry in the first decade of the twentieth century and was crucial to bringing in men and supplies for Georgia Power’s dam building on the Tallulah River.

The Tallulah Falls Railroad was formed in 1881. Known as the Rabun Gap Route, this short-line railroad began in Cornelia, Georgia and was completed to Tallulah Falls in 1882. Crossing the Tallulah River in 1903, the railroad arrived in Clayton in 1904.