Blacksmith shops were essential to settlers in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with many small farm shops scattered through these hills and valleys and larger industrial foundries and commercial shops located at centers of commerce, mining, and milling in the Sautee and Nacoochee valleys. Blacksmiths constructed and repaired horseshoes, plows, wagon wheels, nails, and many kinds of farm equipment. Near this site, a small blacksmith shop taught the craft to male students at the Nacoochee Institute until fire destroyed the Institute in 1927 and ended formal instruction there. After the fire, Rabun Industrial School merged with the former Nacoochee Institute to create Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School.