Hightower (Etowah) Trail

HIGHTOWER (ETOWAH) TRAIL. At this point the noted Hightower (Etowah) Trail crossed today's Azalea drive. With connections from Charleston, via Augusta, the old thoroughfare ran through this section to reach the Indian towns of present-day northwest Georgia. The Hightower Trail was once recognized as an early boundary between the Cherokee and Creek Indian Nations.

The old road was used as the dividing line between Indian cessions of 1819 and 1821, and remains today as the Gwinnett and DeKalb boundaries. After northwest Georgia was opened for settlement in 1832, numerous pioneers migrated over this the old trace and many build their homes along it. The name of the trail its believed to come from the Cherokee, Ita-Wa, but the first English to visit this section pronounced and recorded the name Hightower.

Today, most visible remains of the trail have been erased by urban settlement, but parts of it survive as modern roads. 060-200 GEORGIA HISTORIC MARKER 1985