Interesting Facts About Georgia

  • Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi River.
  • Georgia has 159 counties, more than any other state east of the Mississippi.
  • Two Georgia counties have two names, Ben Hill county and Jeff Davis county.
  • 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.
  • There are 350 species of birds in Georgia.
  • Georgia is home to the oldest state park in the nation.
  • Georgia is home to 65 threatened and endangered plant and animal species.
  • 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.
  • Wesleyan College in Macon was the first college in the world chartered to grant degrees to women.
  • Georgia was the 4th state to join the Union in 1776 and the 5th to join the Confederacy in 1861.
  • Georgia is home to the invention of the Cherokee written alphabet.
  • Amicalola Falls in Dawsonville is the tallest cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi River.
  • The Okefenokee in south Georgia is the largest swamp in North America.
  • Elberton, Georgia is the Granite Capital of the World
  • Georgia has actually had three governors - simultaneously - twice!!
  • The Geographic Center of Georgia is in Twiggs County, 18 miles southeast of Macon.
  • Stone Mountain, near Atlanta, is one of the largest single masses of exposed granite in the world.
  • 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.
  • 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".
  • Hernando de Soto was the first European to explore Georgia in 1540.
  • In 1945, Georgia became the first state to lower the legal voting age from 21 to 18.
  • The first protestant Sunday school in America was started in Savannah by John Wesley in 1736.