Mountain City, Georgia
24 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1886 and the latest in 1988. It stands in the Mountain City census division. It lies in ZIP code area 30562. It stands on Silver Branch. The Survey maps it on the Dillard quadrangle. 904 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 2,156 feet above sea level.
On record in Mountain City
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
York Houselisted 1982
Population over time
2 figuresMountain City fell from 1,088 to 904 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1,088 | |
| 2020 | 904 | -184 (-17%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
10 surveys from 24 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1886 USGS Walhalla quadrangle1:125000
- 1892 USGS Walhalla quadrangle1:125000, 7 printings
- 1896 USGS Walhalla quadrangle1:125000
- 1935 USGS Dillard quadrangle1:24000
- 1946 USGS Dillard quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
- 1947 USGS Dillard quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1954 USGS Greenville quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Greenville quadrangle1:250000
- 1981 USGS Toccoa quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
- 1988 USGS Dillard quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
116 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 116 fires within 5 miles of Mountain City between 1992 and 2019, burning about 533 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 13 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 69 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 13 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 13 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 6 |
| Other causes | 4 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 3 |
| Smoking | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 2 |
| Natural | 2 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 September 2000 | Other causes | 1.0 acres | Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest | MOUNTAIN GROVE |
| 15 September 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest | RHONDA |
| 11 August 2008 | Other causes | under an acre | Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest | LEAD TREE FIRE |
| 22 July 2002 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 2.4 acres | Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest | MYSTERY |
| 21 July 2008 | Natural | 107 acres | Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest | WILSON KNOB |
| 17 July 2009 | Natural | under an acre | Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest | STUMP |
| 3 May 2001 | Arson/incendiarism | under an acre | Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest | AMERICUS |
| 26 May 2016 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Georgia Forestry Commission | FY2016-RABUN-009 |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
3 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Mountain City: 3 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gold, Silver. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dillard/Ledford Placers | Gold, Silver | Past Producer | Stream Placer | |
| Bowers Placer | Gold | Past Producer | Stream Placer | |
| Screamer Mt. | Gold | Past Producer | Stream Placer |
Storms near this place
13 since 1995Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Mountain City in 13 storm reports between 1995 and 2023: 7 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail, 1 flash flood, 1 flood. The reports record 1 death. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2022 | Lightning | Mountain City | 1 killed | Emergency manager reported a lightning strike killed a 39-year-old construction worker on Blacks Creek Dr. |
| October 2020 | Flash Flood | Mountain City | $10,000 | Emergency manager reported flash flooding developed across portions of Rabun County after 5.5 to 7 inches of rain fell across much of the county in around 24 hours. The most significant flooding occurred along the Tallulah River, especially just downstream of Mathis Dam, where inundation occurred along Shady Ln, a portion of Old 441, and Mathis Dam Rd. Multiple other roads were reported as flooded and closed throughout the county, including Highway 15 in the Clayton area. |
| October 2020 | Flood | Mountain City | $1,000 | Although rain tapered off across Rabun County during the morning of the 11th, emergency manager reported lingering runoff resulted in multiple roads remaining inundated and closed, especially along the Tallulah River downstream of Mathis Dam. |
| July 1995 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain City | $500 | Thunderstorm winds blew down three trees in city limits, marble-size hail was also reported. |
| March 2023 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain City | - | County comms reported trees blown down in Mountain City and in Sky Valley. |
| May 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain City | - | County comms reported multiple trees blown down in the Mountain City area. |
| March 2018 | Hail | Mountain City | - | Public reported (via Social Media) mostly pea-to-dime size hail, with a few as large as quarters in the Mountain City area. |
| February 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain City | - | Several trees were blown down across eastern portions of the county. |
| June 2011 | Hail | Mountain City | - | Quarter size hail fell between Mountain City and Rabun Gap. |
| August 2007 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain City | - | Six trees blown down around Mountain City. |
| May 2006 | Hail | Mountain City | - | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain City | - | no account filed |
| July 1997 | Thunderstorm Wind | Mountain City | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| York | 1.2 miles | 24 | |
| Clayton | 2.9 miles | 24 | |
| Dickerson Mill | 3.3 miles | 24 | |
| Dillard | 3.6 miles | 24 | |
| Laurel Falls | 4.1 miles | 19 | |
| Germany | 4.6 miles | 24 | |
| Antioch | 4.9 miles | 24 | |
| Tiger | 5.5 miles | 19 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Mountain City | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q3097263 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 356408. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.









