Towns County territory was taken from Rabun and Union counties, originally part of Cherokee County, in 1856 and is named for George Washington Towns, Georgia governor from 1847 until 1851. Hiawassee, the county seat, has a Cherokee name meaning "meadow." Georgia's highest mountain, Brasstown Bald, is in Towns County, and its eastern border follows closely the Appalachian Trail that continues from Fannin County to the State of Maine.