Biohazard Cleanup Near North Tiger Tiger, GA

Tiger is a town in Rabun County in Georgia's far northeastern Blue Ridge Mountains, about 3 miles south of the county seat, Clayton.

The town grew at the crossing of two Cherokee trails and began as a trading post before the Georgia General Assembly incorporated it as a town on August 13, 1904.

Two legends compete over Tiger's name: one says it honors a Cherokee chief named Tiger Tail, while the other — considered more likely — traces it to the cries of panthers that once roamed the area.

The Tallulah Falls Railroad reached Tiger in 1904, and so many fruit jars were unloaded at its depot that the stop became known as 'Fruit Jar Station.'

In 1907, about 40 percent of Rabun County's qualified voters signed a petition to move the county seat from Clayton to Tiger, though the seat stayed in Clayton.

Tiger sits at an elevation of about 1,962 feet at the base of 2,856-foot Tiger Mountain and covers only about 0.8 square miles.

The 2020 census counted 422 people in Tiger, up from 408 in 2010; back in 2000 the town had 316 people living in 137 households.

The Rabun County Board of Education's administrative offices are headquartered in Tiger in the former South Rabun Elementary School building, and Rabun County High School, Middle School, Elementary School and Primary School all stand just southeast of town.

Tiger's best-known attractions include the Tiger Drive-In theater, the Goats on the Roof roadside attraction, and the Tiger Mountain and Stonewall Creek vineyards.

Tiger is the hometown of University of Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton and Atlanta Falcons tight end Charlie Woerner.