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The History of Lake Arrowhead
The scenic lands comprising Lake Arrowhead were originally at the heart of the Native American nation of the
Cherokee Indian tribe. The Cherokee were a highly civilized and peaceful agrarian people who farmed and hunted
in the beautiful lands of North Georgia – forever respectful of their land and protective of the flora and fauna that
their very existence so depended on. The Cherokee were among the first indigenous tribe to have a written syllabary
and language and were highly literate for the times. Their unfortunate forced exile in 1838 from their ancestral lands
into Oklahoma known as the ‘Trail of Tears’ is truly a black mark on American History.
After the Cherokee left Georgia, the Cherokee nation became federal lands that were sold to individuals.
In 1856 John B. Puckett, a probate judge from Canton, bought much of the valley comprising Lake Arrowhead to
farm it as a plantation. The plantation was known as Lost Town, named after the original Cherokee settlement.
John and Jane Puckett built a sizeable home on the land where the lake is today. The impressive home boasted “glass windows, white gravel walkways and white duck,” describes one historical account. The Cherokee County tax records
of 1878 valued the home at $3,000. No other home in the district was so valuable or well endowed.
Today, only a chimney remains of the Puckett home that lies at the bottom of the lake just off the shoreline.
The Puckett family cemetery has been protected and occupies two acres on a hill just south of the Indian Ridge III development within the Lake Arrowhead community.
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