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is a city in Rabun County, Georgia, United States. The population was 2,019 at the 2000 census. The city is the county seat of Rabun County.
The area that would eventually become Clayton was called the Dividings because it sat at the intersection of three important Cherokee trails. Explorer and naturalist William Bartram came through the Dividings in May, 1775 while exploring what would later become Rabun County. Much later, after Clayton had grown to include the Dividings, two of the old Cherokee trails became the main roads for Clayton and the county: U.S. 441 and U.S. 76.
Clayton was incorporated December 13, 1823 as Claytonville but the name was later shortened to Clayton. The city was named after a prominent jurist and congressman, Judge Augustin S. Clayton who served in both the Georgia House of Representatives and Georgia Senate before becoming as a representative of Georgia in the United States House of Representatives from 1831 – 1835. In 1824, were purchased from Solomon Beck for $150 and a site for a courthouse and the surrounding streets was laid out.
In 1904, the Tallulah Falls Railway was completed to Clayton from Cornelia, Georgia and was later extended to Franklin, North Carolina by 1907. Clayton has had public water and sanitary sewer service since the 1920’s. Initially, the water supply was two springs on nearby Buzzard Roost Mountain, but today Clayton uses Lake Rabun as its water supply.
In 1936, Clayton recorded of total snowfall making that year the snowiest year in the city. The recorded snowfall in Clayton in 1936 is also a state record.