United States, Georgia, Banks County, 34.35413, -83.49737Cooksey, Elizabeth B.2005-03-18Encyclopedia article about Banks County, Georgia. Banks County, in northeast Georgia, is the state's 129th county, comprising 233 square miles. The county was created from portions of Franklin and Habersham counties in 1858 and was named for Richard E. Banks (1794-1856), a circuit-riding surgeon who treated white settlers and Indians in the area, developing a good reputation among the Cherokees for treating smallpox. The land that became Banks County was originally held by the Cherokees, forming a border territory between the Cherokee Indian Nation and the newly formed United States of America. The western border of Georgia (from the top of Currahee Mountain to the southernmost branch of the Oconee River) was marked by a strip of felled trees, twenty feet wide, established with the Cherokees by the Treaty of Augusta in 1783. The northern boundary was the Chattahoochee National Forest.text/htmlengForms part of the New Georgia Encyclopedia.http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/Forms part of the New Georgia Encyclopedia.Counties--GeorgiaBanks CountyText