The Sautee Nacoochee Valley

Ask around the valley and you'll hear the Lover's Leap legend, a Cherokee Romeo-and-Juliet story tied to the mound at its center. It's a good story, but the archaeology tells a different one. The mound was occupied as early as 100 to 500 CE and built up most intensely between 1350 and 1600 CE by South Appalachian Mississippian people, centuries before the historic Cherokee lived here.

That gap between legend and dig is part of what makes the valley worth a slow drive. It's also pretty country: broad bottomland, old farm buildings and Mount Yonah on the skyline. The valley is part of the Sautee Valley Historic District, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. You're only a short drive from the Old Sautee Store and Hardman Farm, so it pairs well with a day in Helen.

Here's the practical list. Check the operator's page before you drive out, since hours change.

The mound is the valley's best-known sight, and you can see it from the road at the junction of GA-17 and GA-75. A white gazebo sits on top. Captain Nichols had it built in 1890, and he removed about two feet of the mound's top to make room.

In 1915 a team led by Frederick Webb Hodge and George Pepper, backed by the Heye Foundation, dug here in what's considered one of the earliest scientific excavations in Georgia. They found 75 burials, including 56 adults, seven adolescents and four children. Georgia State Parks says the mound was likely used long before the Cherokee inhabited the area. Read more on the Nacoochee Mound page or see our guide to the Nacoochee Indian Mound.

Locals tell it this way: a Cherokee maiden named Nacoochee fell in love with a Chickasaw warrior named Sautee. Their people opposed the match, Sautee died, and Nacoochee leapt from Mount Yonah to join him. The story was popularized in an 1871 book by George Williams. A 1955 historical marker even ties the site to the Cherokee town of Gauxule and a visit by Hernando de Soto in 1540, a claim modern scholars dispute.

Hardman Farm is a 173-acre state historic site on Highway 17. The mansion was built in 1870 by Captain James Nichols and is an example of Italianate architecture. Later owners included businessman Calvin Hunnicutt and Dr. Lamartine Hardman, who served as Georgia's governor from 1927 to 1931. The property was donated to the state in 1999.

Anna Ruby Falls takes its name from Nichols's daughter, Anna Ruby Nichols. If you want that story in full, see our Anna Ruby Falls guide.

Tucked off GA-255, this little bridge across Chickamauga Creek was built in 1895 and measures about 33 feet, which makes it among the smallest covered bridges you'll find. It appeared in the 1951 film I'd Climb the Highest Mountain, with Susan Hayward, Rory Calhoun and William Lundigan. The White County Historical Society owns it, and the road has been moved away from it, so it's a short walk and a photo, not a drive-through. More on our Stovall Bridge page.

The Sautee Nacoochee Center is in a restored schoolhouse and runs concerts, theater, classes and two galleries. Its Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia opened in September 2006 and displays more than 150 vessels, a nod to the region's long folk-pottery tradition. For a glass of something local, Creekstone Winery is on Hardman Farm Road, with five-wine tastings and a Thursday-to-Sunday kitchen that does flatbreads, charcuterie and giant pretzels.