Utoy, Georgia was a small village located along Utoy Creek in present-day Fulton County,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, USA. The vicinity, now part of metropolitan

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, was the scene of the August 1864

Battle of Utoy Creek The Battle of Utoy Creek was fought August 4–7, 1864, during the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War. Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's Union armies had partially encircled the city of Atlanta, Georgia, which was being held by Conf ...

during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

and is today the site of Utoy Indian Village, a tourist center with renditions of historic

Native-American Native Americans (also called American Indians, First Americans, or Indigenous Americans) are the Indigenous peoples of the United States, particularly of the lower 48 states and Alaska. They may also include any Americans whose origins lie ...

structures and which offers a "Civil War Battlefield Tour."

History

Aboriginal period

A branch of the Creek (Muscogian) people living on the boundary of the Chattahoochee and Cherokee lands existed since the 15th century in this area hunting local deer and farming

maize Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...

, peas, squash, the polk plant and other items. They lived in wood cabins known as lodges which were filled with clay. Early settlers were taught to subsist in the Muscogian manner and to survive the winter using local herbs and plants. They were peaceful farmers who subsisted well with their neighbors. In 1521, the vicinity was likely visited by Spanish Explorer

Juan Ponce de León Juan Ponce de León ( – July 1521) was a Spanish explorer and ''conquistador'' known for leading the first official European expedition to Puerto Rico in 1508 and Florida in 1513. He was born in Santervás de Campos, Valladolid, Spain, in ...

in his travels looking for both gold and the fountain of youth. He traveled to modern day Atlanta up the Indian Sandtown Trail, today's Cascade Road.

Colonial period

At the time of the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

the Muscogee (Creek) people maintained peaceful relations with the white settlers to the south who were fighting the British Army. In return in 1789 they were granted a treaty from the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

ostensibly guaranteeing the sanctity of their lands. In 1816 a South Carolina Missionary from the Methodist Church named Gilbert ministered to the local Indians at the village of Utoy. In 1821 the US Government forcibly moved the local Creek Indians to Oklahoma on what is referred to as the so-called

Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement of about 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850, and the additional thousands of Native Americans and their black slaves within that were ethnically cleansed by the U ...

. In 1822 the First US Post Office was established here the first in Dekalb at the former site of the Utoy Trading Post. The first settlers in the Atlanta area settled here as the lands had already been cleared and were ready for immediate farming. Existing trails, taking the form today of Sandtown Road, provided a major trading path that developed trade into the new county seat of Decatur from the

Chattahoochee River The Chattahoochee River () is a river in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern United States. It forms the southern half of the Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia border, as well as a portion of the Florida and Georgia border. It ...

Civil War period

: ''Full article:

'' In 1864 the town of Utoy was visited by US Forces moving to break the railroads at East Point. August 267th 1864 the Entire US Army moved down the Fairburn Road in the vicinity of the town of Utoy en route to Shadnar Church (Red Oak) to cut the West Point Railroad bringing supplies to the Confederate Army.

Post-war years

In 1933 the postal function was moved to Adamsville (The former village of Lick Skillet, named for the "Lickskillet Pub") and the Utoy post office was closed. In the 1950s the area became one of the most affluent suburbs of Atlanta with many prominent citizens residing here in Cascade heights. The housing boom with US Army veterans purchasing homes utilizing the VA Housing Guarantee caused great expansion of the former farmlands In 1975 the area became predominantly African American 85% and still maintained as one of Atlanta's affluent suburbs. Former Mayor Andrew Young, Shirley Franklin, Hank Aaron and the first president of the

Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France. It was founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the United ...

are all from the area.

References