Crisp County, Georgia: History and Information

Crisp County, Georgia

Crisp County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Cordele
Year Organized: 1905
Square Miles: 274

Court House:

210 Seventh Street South
County Courthouse
Cordele, GA 31015-4217

Etymology - Origin of County Name

It was named for Charles Frederick Crisp, a jurist, and Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives between 1891 and 1893.

Demographics:

History

Crisp County was created in 1905 from territory formerly belonging to Dooly County. It was named for Charles Frederick Crisp, a jurist, and Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives between 1891 and 1893.

Cordele, the county seat, was a "child of the railroad" having built up at a junction of the Savannah, Americus, and Montgomery Railroads. It was named for the daughter of the railroad's president.

Crisp County became the first county in the nation to own and operate its own electrical power plant. It was started in 1930, with Lake Blackshear on the Flint River providing its power source.

Points of Interest

The county is the gateway to the Presidential Pathways Travel Region with many attractions within easy driving distance of Cordele. The Little White House, Plains (home of Jimmy Carter), Westville, the Little Grand Canyon, and Andersonville Confederate Prison Site are a few of the historic attractions in this area.

Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park, an 8,700-acre park on the banks of Lake Blackshear, was established as a permanent memorial to the U. S. Veterans who served, fought, and died for freedom. Two museums are located in the park. An indoor museum includes exhibits interpreting wars and battles from the 18th century French and Indian War through Vietnam. An outdoor museum is comprised of planes, cannons, and tanks from World War I through Vietnam.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Dooly County

East: Wilcox County

Southeast: Turner County

South: Worth County

Southwest: Lee County

Northwest: Sumter County

Cities and Towns:

- Arabi

town

Incorporated Area

- Cordele (County Seat)

city

Incorporated Area

County Resources:

The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we've given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of our country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."

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