The Indigenous Nations of the Mississippian culture, and historic Yuchi, linked to the Muscogee Creek confederacy and later allies of the Cherokee, occupied Tugaloo and the area of Toccoa for over 1,000 years prior to colonization.

In the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, the people developed some large, dense cities and complexes featuring multiple mounds and, in some cases, thousands of residents.

In what is known as the regional South Appalachian Mississippian culture, by contrast, settlements were smaller and the peoples typically built a single platform mound in the larger villages.

Salvage archeological studies were conducted by Dr. Joseph Caldwell of the University of Georgia in 1957, prior to flooding of this area after construction of a dam downriver.

Indian agent Col. George Chicken was one of the first English colonists to mention Toccoa in his journal from 1725, calling it Toxsoah.

[8] As early as 1740, the Unicoi Turnpike, an important Native American trading path, connected Tennessee to Savannah by way of Toccoa.

That year James D. Prather supervised the construction of his plantation house known as Riverside, on a hill overlooking the upper Tugalo River.

During the Civil War, General Robert Toombs, a close friend of Prather, used this house as a refuge from Union troops.

Its Easy Company was subject of the non-fiction book and an HBO miniseries adaptation of the same name: Band of Brothers.

[23] Stephens County Development Authority (SCDA) was established in 1965 to continue and sustain the growth of Northeast Georgia.

[24] SCDA is responsible for the recruitment of new businesses such as industrial, manufacturing, distribution, corporate and regional headquarters and customer service centers.

[26] The top Stephens County employers in descending order are the Stephens County School System, Caterpillar, Patterson Pump, ASI (GEM Industries), American Woodmark Corp., Standard Register, Sage Automotive Interiors, Habersham Plantation, Toccoa Falls College, Coats & Clark, Eaton Corporation, and PTL Company (an elevator fixtures and parts manufacturer).

The Toccoa Symphony Orchestra[29] is made up of volunteer musicians from the surrounding community, in South Carolina, and Georgia.

The ensemble has premiered works by young composers, presents a yearly Christmas concert with a one hundred voice choir,[30] and incorporates budding performers from nearby Toccoa Falls College.

The building is believed to be a former food supply storage facility, based on its position near the former camp's gates and the foundation's construction.

The Ritz Theatre is a restored 1939 art deco movie theater, located in the Downtown Toccoa Historic District at 139 Doyle Street.

Crossroads Juvenile Academy is an alternative school in Stephens County that gives behaviorally impaired students a second chance.

Amtrak's Crescent connects Toccoa with the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Charlotte, Atlanta, Birmingham, and New Orleans.

Several national retail outlets were then located in downtown Toccoa, including the Belk Gallant department store.

In the early 1960s, around the country, local downtown businesses faced competition with large shopping malls, and many began to fail.

As an answer to the depressed conditions in downtowns, Toccoa and many other towns erected concrete canopies and closed streets to create a pedestrian mall.

When the Belk Gallant department store announced it was going to move along a four lane road called Big A, community leaders organized Main Street Toccoa in 1990.

In 1991, the Georgia Department of Community Affairs Resource Team recommended that the canopies be removed and that the street be opened once again to vehicular traffic.

Efforts that helped contribute community support for the project included county-wide public surveys, a University of Georgia market study, a UGA design charrette, and renderings of individual buildings without the canopies provided by the GA Trust for Historic Preservation and UGA Community Design Planning and Preservation.

Located in the restored historic train depot, the museum features a massive exhibit of 506's Easy Company memorabilia.

The museum just completed its second addition, funded by Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST).

Enhancing Toccoa as a Northeast Georgia destination is the newly restored courthouse, which anchors the downtown district.

[46] On May 7, 2000, Mary Ann Stephens of Toccoa was shot to death outside a Ramada Inn in Jacksonville, Florida while on vacation with her husband.

The incident received national attention and resulted in an Academy Award-winning French documentary, Murder on a Sunday Morning, on the arrest and acquittal of the original suspect.

[47] On November 6, 1977, the earthen Kelly Barnes Dam failed and released over 170 million gallons of water above the Toccoa Falls College campus.