Life on Lake Burton...

The Upper Tallulah Valley was inhabited by the Cherokee Indians until the land was ceded to the State of Georgia in 1817. The first land lot for settlement was issued in 1821. The discovery of gold in 1828 on Dick's Creek drew more settlers to the remote valley. Lake Burton's name was derived from the town of Burton, which was the second largest town in Rabun County with a population of approximately 200. The former town now lies below the lake's surface. The town (and the lake) was named after local prominent citizen Jeremiah Burton, the first postmaster, and was situated along the road from Clayton, Georgia, to the Nacoochee Valley. As a young man, Andrew Jackson Richie, founder of Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School, carried the daily mail to Burton by mule.

With the introduction of hydroelectric power to America in the 1880s and due to the fact that the Tallulah River has the greatest verticality of any river in the east, a series of six stair step dams was constructed in the period 1914–1927 over a distance of 28 miles. Lake Burton, being the largest and highest of the lakes, was intended to be the primary reservoir for the water needed to power the turbines downstream. This North Georgia Hydro Project was one of the first large, integrated hydroelectric systems to be built in North America. The electricity it provided would begin Atlanta's growth into the economic metropolis it is today.

To construct the dam, the Georgia Railway and Power Company (now the Georgia Power/Southern Company) bought out the 65 families in the town of Burton, and demolished the town. It is said once the dam was closed, the water rose so rapidly that the ruins of the town could not be totally removed. Thus, the steeple of the Baptist Church in the town floated in the lake for three years before it sank. No traces of the town remain other than a handful of cemeteries.