An earthwork platform mound was built around 1000 CE in modern-day Hayesville, likely by people of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture as the center of their village.

The next year South Carolina built a trading site in Quanassee to provide English goods in exchange for Cherokee commodities like deerskins.

A Coosa (Creek) war party "cut off" Quanassee in 1725, wrecking the village and enslaving or killing most of its residents.

[4] The Unicoi Turnpike, a 1,000-year-old Native American trading route, ran through the site of Quanassee and modern-day Brasstown.

[6] Today Brasstown is the oldest continuous settlement in the county, having hosted residents since the establishment of the toll road.

[11] In October 1837, Tennessee militia established Fort Hembree at present-day Hayesville to prepare for deporting the Cherokee people.

[17] In mid-2007, courthouse operations moved to a new complex built 1 mile (1.6 km) west of the town square.

[10] The first post office to open in what became Clay County began service January 8, 1844, at Fort Hembree.

In 1874, the county added a part of the Brasstown Creek area extending to the Georgia state line.

[10] Tiger’s Store is thought to be the oldest continuously operating business in Clay County.

[18] Clay County’s two-story brick jail was built in 1912 to replace a log building.

[19] Today the brick jail is home to the Clay County Historical & Arts Museum.

One of the county’s only manufacturing companies, Lidseen of North Carolina, Inc., has operated a metal fabrication plant in Warne since 1957.

Another manufacturing plant, American Components Incorporated, made a metal film resistor for the Saturn V rocket that carried Neil Armstrong to the moon.

Clay County has also manufactured ladies’ dresses, items for combat soldiers, and kitchen and bathroom fixtures.

[10] The county’s first electric power came from a small dam across Shooting Creek near the Elf community in January 1920.

From the early 1900s until the 1930s, every male citizen of Clay County between the ages of 18 and 45 was required to work five days per year without pay to help maintain public roads.

In 1959 a new highway was built from Hayesville through Sweetwater to Peachtree to provide Clay County residents with faster access to Andrews' new District Memorial Hospital.

[8] In October 1920, Clay County’s first and only railroad line, the Peavine, was completed between Hayesville and Andrews, where it connected with the Southern Railway.

It began in a two-story building on Hayesville's town square and at some point moved to a small room in the courthouse.

Willie Forrest Standridge wrote "Clay County Song" to the tune of Onward Christian Soldiers.

[28] The Peacock Performing Arts Center, the only community theatre in far-west North Carolina, opened in Hayesville in 1986.

Clay County is bordered to the south by the state of Georgia and the Chattahoochee National Forest.

Fires Creek Bear Reserve is north of the township of Tusquittee and offers multiple hiking trails.

[36] Like the rest of the southeastern U.S., Clay County receives abundant rainfall, which is relatively evenly distributed throughout the year.

Blizzards are rare but possible; one nicknamed the Storm of the Century hit the entire Eastern United States in March 1993.

Bill Clinton in 1996 was the last Democratic candidate to reach forty percent of the county's vote.

The sheriff protects the court and county owned facilities, manages the jail, and provides patrol and detective services.

[53] The largest and oldest folk school in the United States, the John C. Campbell Folk School, is located in Brasstown, an unincorporated community that exists partly in Cherokee County and partly in Clay County.

[54][55] The school focuses on creative folk arts for all ages and offers community dance and concert entertainment.