Lake Burton is a 2,775 acres (11.23 km2) reservoir with 62 miles (100 km) of shoreline located in the northeastern corner of Georgia in Rabun County.

Noted for the remarkable clarity of its water and surrounded by the biodiverse ecosystem of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the lake celebrated its centennial in 2020.

The town (and the lake) was named after local prominent citizen Jeremiah Burton, the first postmaster, and was situated along the road from Clayton, Georgia, to the Nacoochee Valley.

As a young man, Andrew Jackson Richie, founder of Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, carried the daily mail to Burton by mule.

[citation needed] Due to its remote location, and the intervention of The Great Depression and World War II, Lake Burton remained virtually unsettled until the 1970s.

The fact that it is a clear water lake, situated between the Atlantic and the Gulf, with an average temperature 8–10 degrees cooler than Atlanta, surrounded by National Forest, hardly an hour south of the Smoky Mountains, assured it increasing popularity.

Safety on the lake is administered by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and a local security service, The Mountain Patrol.

The fireworks display was begun in 1976 in honor of the bicentennial by homeowners led by Mason Whitney and continues to be run for over 30 years by a lifelong Lake Burton resident, Hal Rhoad.

Also on the 4th is the Lake Burton Fun Run, a two-mile race that begins at Moccasin Creek State Park and ends at LaPrades Marina.

The YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta operates its primary campus of Camp High Harbour near the headwaters of Lake Burton.

One person was killed (Atlanta businessman E. Earl Patton, a former member of the Georgia State Senate) when his lake house was destroyed by the tornado.

Our Southern Eden, A Centennial History of Lake Burton and the Upper Tallulah River Basin by Michael E. Maffett MD, 2020.