Page 21 - Alliance for Dade 2026

Dade County Established 1837
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HISTORY
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One of the bloodiest battles Trenton Depot
of the Civil War, the Battle of
Chickamauga, was fought
Dade County is now a thriving destination community of more than 16,000 September 19-20, 1863, in Dade,
residents with lively mountain arts and music festivals throughout the Catoosa, and Walker Counties.
seasons. But it wasn’t always like that here in “The State of Dade.” The battle was the most significant
Union defeat in the war and had
Dade County, the state’s ninety-first county, was established in 1837 the second highest number of
as Georgia’s most casualties following Gettysburg.
northwestern county, Historic Courthouse
bordering Alabama Citizens of Dade felt alone and forgotten in the northwest corner of the
and Tennessee. The state. So, they supported the secession effort in the late 1850s, leading to
174-square mile county the nickname “The State of Dade.” The story goes that Dade County leaders
was created from western were so frustrated with Georgia’s delay in
Walker County by the seceding from the Union in 1861 that the
state legislature in 1837 Covenant College county wanted to secede not only from the
and named for Major United States, but from Georgia as well.
Francis Langhorne Dade,
a Virginian who died in Unlike any other county in the state,
the Second Seminole War. for its first 102 years of existence Dade
County was rugged, isolated, and totally
The original population of Dade County was composed of an indigenous disconnected from the rest of the state.
band of Cherokee, led by Chief Wauhatchie, who were forcibly removed In fact, visitors had to leave Georgia and
from the land in 1838 during the Trail of Tears. After the formation of Dade go through Alabama or Tennessee to visit
County and the removal of the indigenous peoples, Dade County grew Dade County by road. There was no road
slowly, with the first settlers being those who won land in the Georgia connecting this county in the extreme
land lotteries and those who came to work in coke and coal mines. northwest corner of Georgia to the rest
of the state until 1939, when the state
Among those settlers were purchased Cloudland Canyon.
businessmen from Trenton,
Oddfellows Building New Jersey who arrived That land purchase in 1939 didn’t Cloudland Canyon
to invest in coal mines. just lead to the creation of one of
Seeking to align the county Georgia’s largest and most scenic
with the industrial strength parks – Cloudland Canyon. It
of New Jersey, those same led to the “rediscovery” of Dade
businessmen changed the County. In 1945, the county passed
name of the county seat from a resolution officially rejoining the
Salem to Trenton. There have Union, more than 80 years after
been four courthouses in the the end of the Civil War.
City of Trenton. The fourth
and current courthouse is on the National Register of Historic Places and Now we welcome you to Discover Dade, too!
replaces the preceding courthouse which was burned in the Chattanooga
Campaign of the Civil War. Paintings by: Heidi Fawn Wilson

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