About two miles south, in the fork of the Appalachee and Oconee rivers, Fort Mathews stood after its construction in 1793. From this fort, Thomas Houghton watched General Elijah Clark and his land-hungry followers as they built forts and fortifications to protect Clark’s “TRANS-OCONEE-REPUBLIC.” Houghton sent Governor George Mathews a report from here, and that report led to Clark’s arrest and the collapse of his dream of an independent republic on land not yet ceded by the Creek Indians.