Dade County, Georgia

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

County Seat: Trenton
Year Organized: 1837
Square Miles: 174

Court House:

P.O. Box 613
County Courthouse
Trenton, GA 30752-0613

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Dade County was named for a Virginian, Major Francis Langhorne Dade, who was killed in 1835 while fighting the Seminoles.

Demographics: County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

History

Dade County, in Georgia's extreme northwestern corner, was established in 1837, a year before the federal government began removing the original inhabitants, the Cherokee Indians. Carved from western Walker County, it was the 91st county created in the state.

Dade County was named for a Virginian, Major Francis Langhorne Dade, who was killed in 1835 while fighting the Seminoles. Trenton, the county seat, was named after the city in New Jersey.

Located on the "Backside of Lookout Mountain," Dade County was for many years unknown to most Georgians. Until a long-delayed state highway over the mountain was completed in 1948, the only reliable route to the county by automobile was through Alabama or Tennessee. For this reason, the county was known as "The Independent State of Dade."

Points of Interest

The 2,120-acre Cloudland Canyon State Park is located in Dade County. Encompassing a deep gorge cut by Sitton Gulch Creek, the park has several ridges and valleys for hiking and camping.

In the late 1890s Dade County built a new courthouse, jail, and library in downtown Trenton. The old courthouse, a 1926 brick structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places, still stands at the center of the town square.

Interstate 59 bisects the county, passing through a scenic valley between the Lookout Mountain and Sand Mountain plateaus.

Neighboring Counties:

Northeast: Hamilton County, Tenn.
Southeast: Walker County
Southwest: DeKalb County, Ala.
West: Jackson County, Ala.
Northwest: Marion County, Tenn.

Cities and Towns:

- Trenton (County Seat)

city

Incorporated Area

County Resources:

County

Chamber of Commerce http://www.dadecogachamber.com/

Additional County Info http://www.georgiaplanning.com/CountyPortal/countyportal.asp?FIPS=13083

County Resource Guide

Counties: US Map

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."

Penn Foster High School

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