Year Erected: 1985

Marker Text: North of this marker, in the center of the lake, once stood an important Native American town. The area now marked by a small island was settled around 500 CE and occupied by Cherokee Indians around 1450. Traders were coming to the town by 1690. In 1716, while British Col. Maurice Moore negotiated a treaty with Cherokee leader Charity Hagey, a group of Creek ambassadors arrived. The Creek Indians, supported by Spain and France, wished to drive the British from the Carolinas in the Yamasee War (1715-1717). The Cherokees killed the Creek ambassadors and joined the British. By 1717, Col. Theophilus Hastings operated a trading center at Tugaloo where gunsmith John Milbourne maintained Cherokee firearms. Indian agent Col. George Chicken visited Tugaloo in 1725 and described it as “…the most ancient town in these parts.” Because the Cherokee in Tugaloo were British allies during the Revolutionary War, the town was destroyed by American patriots in 1776.

Re-erected by the Georgia Historical Society in 2024