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The area that encompasses Ball Ground was originally inhabited by both the Cherokee and the Muscogee Creek, until the Battle of Taliwa, which took place in what later became Ball Ground in 1755, between the Cherokee and the Muscogee Creek, ending with a Cherokee victory and forcing the Creek out of the territory.

Following the passing of the Indian Removal Act in 1830, the Cherokee were slowly relocated out of Cherokee County, including the Ball Ground area. The area of Ball Ground and the surrounding Cherokee County was distributed to European-Americans via the 1832 Georgia Land Lotteries, though the lands were not settled by them until the 1835 Treaty of New Echota caused the Cherokee to fully leave North Georgia and relocate west of the Mississippi River as part of the Cherokee removal out of North Georgia.

The name Ball Ground was initially given by settlers to refer to an area of land, not for the town or community. Native Americans would use the area as a ballground to play a game similar to town ball, and settlers named the town Ball Ground in reference to this. Over time details were added to the story of why the town was named Ball Ground. One such story was that the site was so named because it was the location of a 1532 game of ball between Native Americans playing against Hernando de Soto and his men, in a game umpired by the owner of the Fountain of Youth. When a fight broke out during the game, the umpire was killed, taking the secret of the location of the Fountain of Youth with him. Another story attested as “local folklore” by the Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce says that the site is named Ball Ground because of a game of stickball played between the Cherokee and Creek “for the prize of a thousand square miles of land”.