A History of Sautee Nacoochee - by Tommy Hart Jones (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A History of Sautee Nacoochee is a complete local Georgia history that's intended to be a "readily accessible compendium of useful information about the valleys." Indeed, Jones has compiled a vast amount of information into a "narrative that identifies historical contexts; documents and incorporates site-specific information; and strives to illuminate the lives of the people who, over many centuries of human occupation and in many different ways, contributed to making Sautee Nacoochee what it is today." The manuscript traces thousands of years of history in the valleys, covering culture and environment all the way up to the current push for preservation and is a comprehensive collection designed for locals, historians, genealogists, and anyone interested in Georgia's natural, political, and economic past"--

Book Synopsis

Virtually every landscape is a palimpsest, created by the imprint, however ephemeral, that people have left everywhere they have been. As one peels back layers of history, the true nature of a place can be better understood. A History of Sautee Nacoochee does precisely this for a small Appalachian community with a remarkably long history.

Sautee Nacoochee is a rural community located in White County in northeastern Georgia. It is centered around two large valleys, Sautee, drained by Sautee Creek, and Nacoochee, drained by the Chattahoochee River. In the broadest terms, this book synthesizes an enormous amount of information from many disparate sources into a narrative that identifies historical contexts, that documents and incorporates site-specific information, and that strives to illuminate the lives of the people who over many centuries of human occupation and in many different ways contributed to making Sautee Nacoochee what it is today. It is not a typical "pioneer" history. Indeed, Tommy Hart Jones illuminates the lives of all the people who have occupied the valleys over many thousands of years and connects the deep past to the present.

Review Quotes

Jones presents a deeply researched history of the Sautee Nacoochee region within White County, Georgia. Unlike local histories produced a century ago during the apex of similarly published works, A History of Sautee Nacoochee devotes significant attention to historical actors beyond white 'pioneers.' American Indians and African Americans appear throughout the manuscript. A History of Sautee Nacoochee thus achieves a level of diversity and inclusiveness that few earlier works of local history achieved.--Keith S. Hébert "author of Cornerstone of the Confederacy: Alexander H. Stephens and the Speech That Defined the Lost Cause"

About the Author

TOMMY JONES, an eighth-generation Georgian, has spent his decades-long career in support of historic preservation. He is retired from the National Park Service where he was an architectural historian and cultural resource specialist in the Southeast Regional Office with a wide range of professional duties supporting the agency's efforts to preserve, protect, and interpret historic sites, buildings, and landscapes. He worked for the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation for many years and has had a variety of other clients, including the Atlanta History Center, local governments, and historical societies. He has authored dozens of studies on a wide variety of historic structures.