[1] Joining other settlers on the northern edge of Wilkes County in 1775, William Blackburn settled in the present day area of Stone Mountain State Park.
[citation needed] In 1839 Chang and Eng Bunker, the world-famous Siamese twins who were a popular attraction in Europe, Asia, and North America, settled in the Traphill community.
A Traphill resident, John Quincy Adams Bryan, helped recruit local men into the Union Army.
[citation needed] During the Prohibition era of the 1920s and 1930s Traphill became a center of the mass production and exportation of illegal homemade liquor, or moonshine.
Moonshine became the main source of income for many Traphill families, and until the 1980s, the town continued producing over a million gallons of white liquor each year.
However, as liquor was legalized and tourism became a major source of income for local residents the amount of violence sharply declined later in the 20th century.