Cherokee County covers 575 square miles. Aborigines inhabited the area by 4000 B.C. Cherokee and Creek historic Indians lived there from about 1300 to May 1838. Hernando De Soto was the first white man there in July 1540. The first white settlers arrived about 1810 from VA, NC, SC, GA, and Tenn. The area became part of the Cherokee Cession on Dec. 29, 1835, and was made a county on Jan. 9, 1836. Counties of Baine, now Etowah; Benton, now Calhoun; and DeKalb were later formed in part from it. Before 1836, Cherokee was part of St. Clair County.