Hiawassee, the county seat of Towns County, was incorporated on May 17, 1956. (Earlier the city was incorporated as the town of “Hiwassee”, October 24, 1870.) Hiawassee, a Cherokee word meaning “meadow”, is the only incorporated municipality in the county.

The City of Hiawassee and the Hiawassee River have long been popular tourist areas. In the 1800s through the 1930s, wealthy families from the lowlands would “summer in the mountains” to escape the heat and disease more prevalent in the larger populated areas.