Cradled by the north Georgia mountains of Rabun County, Clayton draws thousands of hikers and history lovers each year. Scott Poss
You may well drive a while to get to Clayton, seat of Rabun County, in the northeast corner of Georgia. It’s worth the trip.
It’s a small place, Clayton, at the intersection of historic U.S. 441 running north/south and scenic U.S. 76 going east/west. On the map, Clayton lies heart-center in Rabun County, cradled by mountains and public lands flowing with rivers and waterfalls.
And you know Rabun County—where much of “Deliverance” was filmed, dueling banjos and roaring rivers the soundtrack. The place where the Appalachian oral history Foxfire books rose up to take the publishing world by storm 50 years ago. Where Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronin’s 1987 Hallmark Hall of Fame movie “Foxfire” was filmed.
But that was yesterday. Today, new things ask for your attention. Walk Main Street and intersecting Savannah Street in Clayton, and you’ll see two large outdoor outfitter stores, a brewery and holistic health market, a toy store, home décor and design shops, upscale gift shops, galleries, clothing boutiques, a florist shop and cowboy boot store, a longstanding diner and a new upscale eatery, a hometown pharmacy with the Soda Fountain Diner attached. In short…there’s not a single empty storefront on Main Street.
How does a tiny city of just over 2,000 people, in a county that’s 75% public land and nearly two hours from a city in any direction, build itself a destination downtown?
Spend some time with Rick Story, sixth-generation Clayton area native and development director of Forward Rabun, and the answer becomes pretty clear pretty fast.
The word “synergy” comes up often talking with Story, whose resume includes work in Washington for a Georgia Congressman who was subsequently elected governor.
“Those years, I was chasing rabbits in every direction,” a smiling Story says.
A former University of Georgia Archway Partnership professional, Story brought the model to Rabun County in 2019. The Archway model brings localities together to work together for the greater good. “Facilitating conversation was my main priority—establishing a dialogue of neutrality. The rising tide raises all boats,” Story says.
“We’ve brought together three separate entities—the Tourism Authority, the Chamber and the Development Authority—under the name Forward Rabun. We do a bimonthly intergovernmental roundtable—one representative from each of the small Rabun cities and the County Commission Chair. The secret in the sauce is that you have to have full buy-in. We’ve had more successes than failures.”
Put it in simpler terms, and what you’ve got headquartered in Clayton is developing support for all the players, and strong unity among them.
“Egos, turf protection and silos are the biggest detriments to progress,” Story says.
One of the most exciting recent Clayton developments is the designation of the city as an official Appalachian Trail Town by the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Outdoor 76 store co-owner Cory McCall and manager Bill Bennett worked cooperatively with Forward Rabun to literally put Clayton on the AT map.
Outdoor 76 runs weekday AT shuttles to Dicks Creek Gap 16 miles west of Clayton (and Saturday by appointment). “This is a great trail town for hikers,” Bennett says. “It’s got a little bit of everything.” (Including the recently opened Holistic Mountain Market, where owner Dana McFarland serves up smoothies and herbal remedies with genuine hospitality.)
Bennett has seen a lot of progress in Clayton since Outdoor 76 opened in 2018. “On weekends, the traffic is amazing. The trick is to keep this a small town, and a trail town, and a town for the everyday person.”
Radiating out from Clayton are five other interesting tiny cities: Dillard (pop. 392); Sky Valley (pop. 288); Tallulah Falls (pop. 168); Tiger (pop. 439); and Mountain City (pop. 1,165). It’s the last one that draws me north from Clayton for an afternoon of learning about Rabun’s past—and, likely, its future.
Suzie Nixon Flaherty moved back to Rabun County with her family and opened Blue Ridge Activity and Tumbling Center. Connected to it is the large auditorium known in the day as the Mountain City Playhouse, currently being updated and restored.
“This is where my parents met—and a lot of other people I know,” Flaherty says. She staged a soft opening complete with music by the Foxfire Boys and the Fletcher Gap band—and a whole lot of clogging, buck dancing and bunny-hopping.
Flaherty’s family goes back generations in Rabun County. And preserving the heritage of Rabun County is important to her. “There’s a wealth of stories here in Rabun County,” she says. “This area is made up of people who survived. It’s important to maintain our communities.”
Head out of Mountain City on Black Rock Mountain Parkway, and you’ll find Georgia’s highest state park, Black Rock Mountain. And nearby, the Foxfire Museum, a 106-acre monument to Appalachian oral history and the high school students who collected it. Twenty-five reconstructed log buildings from 1820-1940—all filled with artifacts, photos and crafts—wind along a walking path on land bought with money earned by Rabun County High School students writing and selling the Foxfire books.
It’s a lovely place, Rabun County, and the county seat of Clayton is thriving thanks to the cooperative spirit around it.
Rick Story’s plans for his hometown sound exactly right: “I want to unify the community more. The longtime locals, the people who came 20 years ago, and the people who came here two weeks ago—we’re all here now. We’re all calling it home. Let’s come to common ground.”
The story above first appeared in our July / August 2022 issue.
