Queen City of the Chattahoochee

Known by the Indians as A-Con-Hollo-Way Tal-lo fa (Highland Town), Fort Gaines, established as a frontier fort in 1816 by Gen. Edmund P. Gaines, was chartered as a town in 1830 and named for Gen Gaines. A shipping point for cotton planters for many miles on both sides of the river, it was the most important point between Apalachicola and Columbus until the railroads in 1858. Huge warehouse along the river held thousands of bales of cotton for shipping in large steamboats. Traces of a slide down the bluff to the warehouses still exist. The Hartford Road was a main traffic artery. First merchants were Hartwell Tarver, John Brochman and John Dill.