Alpharetta

In the 1830s, the Cherokee people in Georgia and elsewhere in the South were forcibly relocated to the Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) under the Indian Removal Act. Pioneers and farmers later settled on the newly vacated land, situated along a former Cherokee trail stretching from the North Georgia mountains to the Chattahoochee River.^[6]

One of the area's first permanent landmarks was the New Prospect Camp Ground (also known as the Methodist Camp Ground), beside a natural spring near what is now downtown Alpharetta.^[6] It later served as a trading post for the exchanging of goods among settlers.^[6]

Known as the town of Milton through July 1858, the city of Alpharetta was chartered on December 11, 1858, with boundaries extending in a 0.5-mile (0.80 km) radius from the city courthouse.^[6] It served as the county seat of Milton County until 1931, when Milton County merged with Fulton County to avoid bankruptcy during the Great Depression.^[6]

The city's name may be a variation of a fictional Indian girl, Alfarata, in the 19th-century song "The Blue Juniata"; it may also be derived from alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet.^[7]

The Simeon and Jane Rucker Log House, built in 1833, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1997