Rounding the ‘quick turn’ on Old Historic US 441 near the gazebo in Clarkesville you’ll see a rock with a plaque on it. This historical marker sits behind a fire hydrant, hiding in plain view. It’s the reason the building beside it is named the DeSoto Building.
Long before Habersham County was founded in 1818 and before Clarkesville became a city in 1821, the Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernando de Soto passed through the area in search of gold. Today the de Soto monument is a local landmark announcing de Soto was here.
According to the website Georgia Genealogy Trails:
The first white man to visit what is now Habersham County was Hernando De Soto, who came around 1540 in search of gold. He came from the southeast, around Currahee Mountain of Chopped Oak. Chopped Oak was called “Digaluvatunyi” by the Cherokees, which meant “where it is gashed with hatchets.” He is thought to have traveled through Nacoochee Valley and to have mentioned the Indian mounds there. He crossed the Soque River near Clarkesville and found the county inhabited by the Cherokee Indians. It was many years before white man again came through, and the Cherokees were left in possesion of the land A small part of south Habersham County was probably at one time held by the Creek Indians. The old boundary line between the Cherokee andd Creek nations ran below where Chenoceetah Mountain and Hillcrest are located.
For more on the history of Hernando de Soto in Habersham visit Exploring Northeast Georgia by Kitty Stratton.
