Our History

Long before Georgia had interstate highways or most rural families had indoor plumbing, a young boy named Herman Long used to explore the Toccoa River nursing a dream. No land he had ever seen drew his heart home like this uniquely situated place where Big Creek and the Toccoa River flowed together. Walking up and down this patch of ground, he dreamed one day he would own it.

Shortly after marrying his sweetheart Lois in 1942, Herman finally realized his boyhood dream when they purchased all the acreage that would eventually become Toccoa Valley Campground. They built a house and settled in, with little idea then that most of Herman’s dream for this land had hardly even been conceived yet, much less realized.

Herman’s second dream for this beautiful piece of Toccoa Valley land began to form in the 1950s, when he took a job with the United States Forest Service. Charged with building recreation areas and campgrounds in the Blue Ridge area, Herman worked on Morganton Point, Lakewood Landing, Swinging Bridge, and Fort Mountain, to name a few. And while he perfected his work for the Forest Service, Herman began to envision a campground of his own.

A visionary of outdoor family fun, Herman pioneered the river tubing business. Informally from the 1960s on, he began to invite passing travelers to picnic on his property or float the river on large truck inner tubes he purchased for the purpose. When he retired from the Forest Service in 1986, he turned his attention entirely to his second dream and officially founded the Toccoa Valley Campground on the land he had loved since his youth. He was way ahead of his time. The Atlanta Journal Constitution cited Toccoa Valley Campground as “the oldest tubing company in the state of Georgia.”

Now, Toccoa Valley Campground has gone from tire tubes and primitive camping to signature custom-made pink tubes and full hook-up RV sites. But Herman’s family, now in the third and fourth generation working in the business, still pursues his dream with the same love for the land, family, and neighbors that made his dreams successful in the first place.

Come and visit us—whether to camp in tents, park your RV, or float the river on one of our tubes, rafts or kayaks. Our mission is to help you make family memories that will last a lifetime and beyond. Know that when we say fresh-air family fun, we stand behind that with our family name!