About Us

Running Water Creek Campground is fully off-grid!  Powered almost exclusively by solar and wind energy, we know the importance of renewable energy sources. We also have a solar well pump system for the bathhouse along with one of our future Airbnb cabins having a rainwater catchment system. We try to keep the property maintained while keeping the natural beauty of the land and its deep history. 

Running Water Creek gets its name from the Creek that runs through the property.  Originally,  a Cherokee  Village. One of 5 Cherokee and Chicamaugan,  Chief Dragging Canoe lived at Running Water. He and his Cherokee followers were opposed to European-American settlement in their lands so they moved out of North Carolina, and North Georgia, further down the Tennesse River to more distant areas of the frontier to avoid the  Colonial Americans. The Chattanooga-Nashville Railroad was built prior but was a key part of the Civil War. With  Tennessee valley being Rich in Coal deposits, the railroad was built to move the Coal, and Iron deposits.  The community of Whiteside developed later at this site, named for a major railway investor, Colonel James Whiteside. Shortly before the Civil War, a railway was constructed in this area, of which Colonel Whiteside was a major stockholder. It took over the construction of what is known as the Whiteside Tunnel in 1858. After the tunnel was abandoned, because of changes in rail standards and patterns of use, it was donated in 1968 to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. The Whiteside Tunnel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, as NRHP 78002595. The tunnel can still be seen along GA-299.   The Whiteside trestle bridge was constructed on another part of the route. Confederate troops destroyed it during the Civil War, but Union forces rebuilt the Whiteside trestle in 1863, for what was then known as the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad. This structure washed away in a flood in 1867, and the next bridge lasted until 1924.