Georgia Project Resource Page

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Georgia Fun Facts

1. Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi River.
2. Georgia has 159 counties, more than any other state east of the Mississippi.
3. The only county in Georgia named after a woman is Hart county, named for Nancy Hart, a patriot and warrior in the fight against the British during the Revolutionary War.
4. There are 350 species of birds in Georgia.
5. Georgia is home to the oldest state park in the nation.
6. Georgia is home to 65 threatened and endangered plant and animal species.
7. Georgia became the first state to charter a state-supported university on January 27, 1785 when the University of Georgia was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly.
8. Wesleyan College in Macon was the first college in the world chartered to grant degrees to women.
9. Georgia was the 4th state to join the Union in 1776 and the 5th to join the Confederacy in 1861.
10. Georgia is home to the invention of the Cherokee written alphabet.
11. Amicalola Falls in Dawsonville is the tallest cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi River.
12. The Okefenokee in south Georgia is the largest swamp in North America.
13. Elberton, Georgia is the Granite Capital of the World
14. Georgia has actually had three governors simultaneously - twice!!
15. The Geographic Center of Georgia is in Twiggs County, 18 miles southeast of Macon.
16. Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, is one of the largest single masses of exposed granite in the world.
17. The world's largest sculpture is located on the face of Stone Mountain. The figures of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee are depicted as well as Lee's horse, Traveler.
18. The largest wild hog found ever discovered was found and killed in Alapaha Georgia. Weighing in at 1,000 pounds and measuring 12 feet in length, the creature was nicknamed "Hogzilla".
19. Hernando de Soto was the first European to explore Georgia in 1540.
20. In 1945, Georgia became the first state to lower the legal voting age from 21 to 18.
21. The first protestant Sunday school in America was started in Savannah by John Wesley in 1736.

Stone Mountain

Government Facts

1904 - Georgia voters had approved a constitutional amendment limiting the number of counties in the state to 145. ^[1]

1905 - the General Assembly formed 8 more counties bringing the total to 145, the constitutional limit that had been approved by voters. However there was pressure for more counties.

Aug 21, 1906 When the Georgia assembly wanted to create Bacon County there was a stumbling legal block. FIRST The legality of a municipal incorporation, legislation had to pass the the assembly for Alma to be incorporated. In the end they approved to re-incorporate Alma with legislative instead of the nomal judicial charter. That act was approved. ^[1]

1906 - The Georgia lawmakers by-passed the limit by creating counties with a constitutional amendment that were not subject to the limitation....^[1]

1914 Why was Bacon County created by constitutional amendment instead of an act of the General Assembly? SEE 1906 Bacon County had to be created the "by-pass way" of the constitutional amendment. ^[1]

1924 Georgia suddenly had 161 counties (16 created by constitutional amendments).^[1]

Jan 1,1932 Milton and Campbell counties merged with Fulton with a total of 159 counties...

1945 Georgia voters ratified another new constitution with the limit of 159 counties. There was a new provision that no new counties could be formed unless existing counties were consolidated to form a new one....^[1]

Sources:

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5} http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/topics/counties/bacon

• Georgia Traveler
• Georgia in the Civil War, Battles