The Nottely River is a river in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The river originates in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Blue Ridge Mountains

The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, starting at its southern-most...

 in northern Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

. The river flows for 51.1 miles (82.2 km) into the artificial Hiwassee Reservoir in North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

. The Nottely River is dammed

Nottely Dam

Nottely Dam is a hydroelectric and flood storage dam on the Nottely River in Union County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. The dam is owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1940s as a flood control structure and to help regulate flow at nearby Hiwassee...

 in Georgia, creating Lake Nottely

Lake Nottely

Lake Nottely is one of many reservoirs of the Tennessee Valley Authority. It is located entirely in Union County, Georgia in the United States. Formed in 1942 by the damming of the Nottely River, Nottely Reservoir extends 20 miles upstream to the town of Blairsville.Construction of Nottely Dam...

.

Early history

The region was occupied by Native Americans

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

, associated with modern day Muskogean tribes, until the early 18th century. The earliest European maps only vaguely show the area to be occupied by a mountain branch of the Apalachee

Apalachee

The Apalachee are a Native American people who historically lived in the Florida Panhandle, and now live primarily in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Their historical territory was known to the Spanish colonists as the Apalachee Province...

 people. However, it is quite likely that groups ancestral to the Creek and/or Yuchi

Yuchi

For the Chinese surname 尉迟, see Yuchi.The Yuchi, also spelled Euchee and Uchee, are a Native American Indian tribe who traditionally lived in the eastern Tennessee River valley in Tennessee in the 16th century. During the 17th century, they moved south to Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina...

 Indians occupied the Nottely River Basin at some time in the past. After the Cherokees occupied the region, most of their villages had names from the Muskogee

Creek language

The Creek language, also known as Muskogee or Muscogee , is a Muskogean language spoken by Muscogee and Seminole people primarily in the U.S. states of Oklahoma and Florida....

 (Creek) language. However, the region seems to have remained thinly populated due to its proximity to Creek Indian territory.

The origin of the word, Nottely, is not known for certain, but appears to be derived from the Hitchiti-Creek word Note-le, which means, "People on the Other Side."

In 1715 the Cherokees invited leaders of all the major Creek provinces to a diplomatic conference in the nearby town of Tugaloo, at the head of the Savannah River. All of the Creek leaders were murdered in their sleep. This act of treachery precipated a 40 year long war between the Creeks and the Cherokees. Initially, all the branches of the Creeks were involved, but only the Kowita branch fought the war continuously. By the 1750s, the Kowita Creeks alone had gained so much military prowness that they were consistently defeating the Cherokees in battle. One Creek war leader bragged that he had sent women and boys into battle, but still captured another Cherokee town. By 1755 the Kowita Creeks had destroyed all of the Cherokee towns and villages in the Nottely and Hiwassee Valleys. The 1755 John Mitchell

John Mitchell

-Politics:*John Mitchell *John Mitchel , Irish nationalist*John N. Mitchell , United States Attorney General and Watergate conspirator*John Mitchell , United States Congressman from Pennsylvania...

 Map labels the entire region "Deserted Cherokee settlement."

In 1763 the Cherokees lost all of their territory in North Carolina, east of the 80th longitude line, which runs through Murphy, NC. This was punishment for the Cherokees switching sides in the French and Indian War. The Creeks agreed to give back their recently regained lands in North Carolina and Georgia, in return for most of the land in Alabama, which had been taken from the French by the British. Some small Cherokee settlements such as Choestoe (Rabbit) and Chota (Frog in Creek) returned to the Nottely River Basin. In 1838, the Cherokees were removed from Georgia and were forcibly deported to the Indian Territory (Oklahoma.)

A historical marker near the Nottely River describes a massive battle in 1755 on Blood Mountain between the Cherokees and the Creeks, in which the Cherokees won all of northern Georgia. If there was ever a battle at this location, it did not occur in 1755, because by that time, the Cherokees had lost all of their territory in Georgia and the southern half of North Carolina Mountains. The story of the battle may be a frontier misinterpretation of the accumulation of arrowheads on the mountain from thousands of years of hunting, or perhaps, an ancient battle that did not involve the Cherokees.

After the Cherokee Trail of Tears

Trail of Tears

The Trail of Tears is a name given to the forced relocation and movement of Native American nations from southeastern parts of the United States following the Indian Removal Act of 1830...

, the Nottely Basin slowly filled with settlers, many of whom were from Scotland or Ulster. The region was isolated from the remainder of the State of Georgia until the 1920s, when the first paved highways were constructed. Improved highway access during the early 21st century resulted in a population boom. Many of the new residents migrated from Florida in the aftermath of a series of severe hurricanes on the Gulf Coast. The Nottely River Basin is still farmed intensively. It is known for both sorghum syrup and several varieties of vegetables.