Local legend holds that this waterfall was named for a Creek maiden called Issaqueena, whose story appears in J.W. Daniels' 1898 poem "Cateechee of Keowee." In the most popular version, Issaqueena was captured as a girl by the Cherokee and given the name Cateechee, then later fell in love with a white trader, Allan Francis. After overhearing a Cherokee plan to attack frontier settlements, she rode 96 miles on a swift pony to warn him at his trading fort, naming landmarks along the way including Six Mile Mountain, Twelve Mile River, Eighteen Mile Creek, and others before reaching Fort Ninety-Six. Fearing Cherokee retribution, she stayed with Allan and eventually married him, and in time they returned with their newborn baby to Stumphouse Mountain and built a home there. Later, when a Cherokee chief sent warriors to capture her, Issaqueena ran toward the waterfall and, knowing the Cherokee believed evil spirits lived in waterfalls, pretended to leap to her death, then hid on a ledge below the top until it was safe to rejoin her family, giving rise to the legend of Issaqueena Falls.