Tate City, Georgia
Tate City is a small town in north east Georgia with a population of about 30. The unincorporated city is in the far eastern corner of Towns County. The only way to get to Tate City is to travel through Rabun County. (You can get to it while staying in Towns County, but it requires a large truck with four wheel drive.) Unfortunately, Tate City falls within my jurisdiction. It’s a beautiful place, but it’s not easy or quick to get to. It’s about a 30 mile trip, 6 of which are on a single lane dirt road. It takes up to an hour to get there, so if the call is a real emergency, the Rabun County Sheriff’s Office responds as well to assist us. (Fun Fact: The children of Tate City attend Rabun County schools. The Towns County Board of Education pays their tuition.)
In the picture below, you’ll notice that half of the trip to Tate City involves driving through another county.
We don’t have to respond to Tate City often. Since I’ve been with this department, I’ve only been there twice. Both times were regarding guns. We recently responded to Tate City when a man purposefully shot his brother in the arm.
The worse part about responding to Tate City, is that there is no cell phone or radio service there. On a good day, dispatch might be able to hear static when you try to speak on the radio. If you need help, too bad. Also, depending on how many are working at the time, when an officer responds to Tate City, it might leave the rest of the county to be covered by one officer.
I’m not complaining about Tate City. I’m just constantly amazed at how remote some places still are, and I wanted to share it. I grew up in Hiawassee and I never even knew where Tate City was. If you had told me about Tate City when I was working for Cobb County Police, I probably would have laughed and been in awe. Now, when I’m told I have to go to Tate City, I just cry a little inside.
November 8th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
Yeah, I am all for a helicopter at the department. Seems to make sense given the remote locations vs response time and possibilities for search and rescue. Seems like some could use thier time to research and combine local efforts to make something like that happen instead of worrying about things that really don’t matter.
November 8th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
LOL, I still say we should just GIVE it to Rabun County. You should have been at the S.O. when this on house had false alarms about twice a week…AND…the first time I went there, it was very difficult to find, as it appeared you were in going around someones driveway, and the driveway to the house looked like some grown up forestry road. What a nightmare I tell you…
January 9th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
I bet if you look around the area….there is a ex-cop that lives back there willing to be deputized on a ON CALL PAY basis if needed
January 12th, 2010 at 6:04 pm
I had no idea about Tate City. It makes me want to go up there and see for myself. I remember in school various people said there was a part of Towns co that you could only access through another county but I thought it wasn’t true.
Very enlightening Paul!