Ron Borders GMAC Real Estate: Service Area South Georgia Communities

Ron Borders GMAC Real Estate is based in Valdosta, Georgia, approximately twenty miles from the Florida border. Valdosta is the economic center for a ten-county area in and around the Georgia - Florida state line.  Some Florida areas are within the Valdosta commute range. (Our area service area is in Georgia, however, for Florida real estate, we will be glad to work with a Florida Realtor of your choice, or to refer you to a qualified reputable Realtor in that area.)  See below for information on the South Georgia Area

Telephone Area Code: 229 USPS Zip Codes Listed below

Eastern Time Zone   ||    DST: yes Estimated metropolitan area population (2007)      130,170

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Useful Local Links

• Official Valdosta City Website
• Official Georgia State Government Website
• State Department of Education
• Lowndes County Schools
• Valdosta City Schools
• Local Attractions & Parks
• Local Mortgage Firms & Banks
• Yahoo! Maps of Area
• Google Satellite Map of Area
• Driving / Locations Map of City
• History / General Information about Valdosta
• Utilities Information
• Interstate Exits / Directions

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Zip Codes
 

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Local History Links

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Adel and Sparks

Alapaha

Alapaha, Georgia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Barney

The first settlers, in what is now Brooks County, were Spanish missionaries from Florida who arrived around 1570. Brooks County was formed from parts of Lowndes and Thomas counties and was named for Preston Brooks, a member of Congress prior to the Civil War and an avid defender of state rights. During the Civil War, the county was the main producer of food for the confederacy and became known as the "Breadbasket of the South."

Cecil

Cecil is a town in Cook County, Georgia, United States. The population was 265 at the 2000 census. 

City of Cecil - Cook County

Cook County was the 153rd county formed in Georgia. It was created from Berrien County and named for General Philip Cook, who fought in both the Seminole War and the Civil War and was Georgia's Secretary of State for over 20 years.

Geography

Cecil is located at 31°2′50″N, 83°23′36″W (31.047092, -83.393416)^GR1.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 2.2 km² (0.9 mi²). 2.2 km² (0.9 mi²) of it is land and 1.18% is water.

Dasher / Lake Park / Twin Lakes

Three small cities south and east of Valdosta.

City of Dasher - Lowndes County.  Lowndes County is named for William Lowndes, a South Carolina statesman who died shortly after being nominated for Vice President of the United States. The county seat, Valdosta, was named for Governor George Troup's plantations, named for an Italian alpine valley, Val D'Osta. The first county seat, Franklinville, was established in 1828. In 1837, Troupville became the county seat until the railroad surveyors came to the area. The citizens of Troupville decided to pickup and move the town four miles to ensure its economic prosperity. The town was then renamed Valdosta in 1860 and became the new seat of county government. Dasher was incorporated in 1968, population 834, 4.9 sq. mi.

Lake Park - Incorporated 1890, population 549, 1.4 sq. mi.  Most noted for a large outlet mall and a professional golf course.

Twin Lakes - a waterside suburb of Valdosta between Dasher and Lake Park.  

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Hahira

Hahira is the northern gateway into Lowndes County, one of the fastest growing and most progressive counties in Georgia. Located only eleven miles north of Valdosta, the county seat, and a regional trade center. Valdosta is experiencing unprecedented industrial, residential, and commercial growth and has a positive impact on Hahira. As Valdosta expands, residential growth will move towards Hahira.  Most noted locally as a sought-after suburb of Valdosta and as the local bee-keeping and honey capital.

 

Lakeland

Lakeland, the county seat of Lanier County was incorporated August 11, 1925. Lakeland is the county's only incorporated municipality. Throughout Lakeland's brief history, its names have related to the geographic area surrounding the city. Its original name was Alapaha Station after the Alapaha River. The name was changed to Mill Town in 1832 for its numerous mills. Finally, the current name was decided upon due to the city's close proximity to the Grand Bay Lake. Lanier County, in southern Georgia, is the state's 157th county. Named for the Georgia poet Sidney Lanier, the county was created in 1920 with land taken from Berrien, Clinch, and Lowndes counties. Its 187 square miles were formerly held by Creek Indians. The county is home to several lakes, including Banks Lake, Grand Bay Lake, and Lake Irma. In the first part of the nineteenth century, settler Joshua Lee built a dam on his land across Banks Lake's drainage creek to power a grist mill. Lee's mill, a three-story building, became the center of trade along the stagecoach route between Thomasville and Waycross. As other mills and businesses Lanier County grew up around Lee's mill, a village developed that was named Alapaha by residents, after the nearby Alapaha River. In 1832 the community took the name Milltown because of the number of mills nearby. When the town incorporated as a city in 1925, its name was changed to Lakeland, reflecting its proximity to several lakes. Today Lakeland is the county seat for Lanier County. The first courthouse, built in 1921, was replaced in 1973 by the current courthouse. The community of Stockton, incorporated from 1876, when it was still in Clinch County, until 1995, was originally called Registerville. It took its present name from a railroad official who oversaw the grading of the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad through the town. The county's  economy has remained rural in nature, but the educational, health, and social service sector was the largest employment category in 2006. Factors contributing to this economy include the presence of Moody Air Force Base (shared by Lanier and Lowndes counties), the several lakes and nature reserve, the hospital, and a large state correctional facility. The second largest employment category is manufacturing. The largest employers are Farmers and Merchants Bank, Georgia Department of Corrections, J. H. Harvey Company, Louis Smith Memorial Hospital, and Patten Seed Company. Lanier County Courthouse Notable residents of Lanier County include E. D. Rivers, who served as governor of Georgia from 1937 to 1941. The Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1985, hosts approximately 20,000 visitors annually. It provides hiking, fishing, and boating opportunities on more than 4,000 acres of water, Banks Lake marsh, and swamp. The Robert Simpson III Nature Trail, dedicated in August 2001, is located within the Lakeland city limits on 75 acres of pine and hardwood forests. Historic sites include Governor Rivers's house, which was moved from its original spot on Banks Lake to West Main Street in Lakeland in the early 1980s; Union Baptist Church, located near Georgia Highway 135; and Fender Cemetery, located east of Lakeland at the junction of U.S. 221 and Georgia 37 on land that once belonged to David Fender. The site of the cemetery, in which many of the area's first settlers are buried, was chosen so that mourners would not have to ferry their dead across the river for burial. Also, the "Murals of Milltown," which depict community life in the 1920s, grace the exteriors of buildings in downtown Lakeland. According to the 2000 census, the population of Lanier County is 7,241 (71.6 percent white, 25.6 percent black, and 1.7 percent Hispanic)an increase of 30.9 percent since 1990.

 

Lenox

In the late 1800's, railroad workers stumbled across some of the finest timber they had ever seen. In doing that, lumber mills began to set up and they called this little place Mogul. In the early 1900's two farmers were setting at the train depot when workers began to load an old ox. One farmer said to the other, "that sure is a lean ox" and the story goes from there. Incorporated in 1901, Lenox has become an agricultural hub for south central Georgia. The rise in the production of produce, such as watermelons, has put Lenox on the map with produce brokers from Florida and Missouri.

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Moody Air Force Base

Moody Air Force Base is home to the 347th Rescue Wing. The 347th Rescue Wing is comprised of five groups, four of which are located at Moody Air Force Base and one at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. The 347th Mission Support, 347th Operations, 347th Medical, and 347th Maintenance, are located at Moody, and the 563rd Rescue Group at Davis-Monthan. Assigned to the 347th Operations Group is one HH-60G rescue squadron, one HC-130P rescue squadron, and one pararescue squadron. Additionally there are 14 support squadrons and two major tenant units. 

The wing has operational control over the 563rd Rescue Group, a Geographically Separated Unit (GSU) at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, as well as the 563rd Rescue Group, Operating Location-Alpha, a GSU at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.

MISSION
The mission of the 347th Rescue Wing is to organize, train and employ a combat-ready, HC-130 and HH-60 rescue wing consisting of approximately 4,054 military and civilian personnel including GSUs in Nevada and Arizona. The wing executes worldwide peacetime and combat search and rescue (CSAR) operations in support of humanitarian and U.S. national security interests, and in support of the global war on terrorism (GWOT). Moody also hosts and supports Air Education and Training Command’s (AETC) 479th Flying Training Group and Air Combat Command’s (ACC) 820th Security Forces Group in all operations. 

Moody’s aircraft include the HH-60G the HC-130P. The HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter provides a combat search and rescue platform for the USAF through its ability to operate in a vast array of rescue scenarios. The HC-130P flies low-level missions into hostile territory to effect rescues and to provide air refueling for our rescue helicopters.

POPULATION
The base has approximately 3715 military and 339 civilian employees. Population impact on the local community:
-Military and family 8,398
-Civilians and family 3,000 (est)
-Retirees and family 15,000 (est)
-TOTAL 26,398

This number is even more significant when compared to the Valdosta population of 48,000 and Lowndes County with 85,000.

ECONOMIC IMPACT
In FY 02, Moody generated a $186.8 million dollar payroll for the local economy. Construction, services and commodities contracts totaled almost $55.2 million. Other expenditures such as pay from the 1,749 secondary jobs created totaled $41.4 million. TOTAL - $283 million.


HISTORY
The base was named in memory of Maj. George Putnam Moody, an early Air Force pioneer killed in May 1941 while serving with the Beech Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kan. At the time of his death, the major was working on the inspection board for AT-10 transitional trainers which were later sent to Moody. 

The base had its beginning in 1940 when a group of concerned Valdosta and Lowndes County citizens began searching for a way to assist the expanding defense program. The citizens rallied interest in the War Department for a 9,300 acre tract known as the Lakeland Flatwoods Project, northeast of Valdosta. On May 14, 1941, the War Department was granted exclusive use of the land by the Agriculture Department. 

On Feb. 19, 1942, the Moody Field Advanced Pilot Training School began training 50 Army Air Corps cadets in the Beech AT-10. Following World War II, Moody was placed on inactive status in November 1947, but was reactivated in May 1951 when the Korean conflict created a need for more Air Force pilots. 

The base’s primary mission in its early years was to meet the requirements of the Air Force Pilot Instrument School and Instrument Flying School. 

In September 1975, the 347th Tactical Fighter Wing, belonging to Tactical Air Command, relocated from Thailand to Moody. 

In December 1975, the 347th TFW formally replaced the 38th Flying Training Wing, flying the F-4E Phantom II. 

Moody won the Commander-in-Chief's Installation Excellence Award for 1991, and the 1994 Verne Orr Award, which is presented by the Air Force Association to the unit that most effectively uses human resources to accomplish its mission. In June 1997, the wing was awarded the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award for the eighth time in its illustrious history. 

On July 1, 1994, the Air Force converted the 347th Fighter Wing to the 347th Wing, a force projection, airland composite wing. 

On May 8, 2001, the 347th Wing converted again to the 347th Rescue Wing, becoming the Air Force’s only active-duty combat search and rescue wing. 

On Oct 1, 2003, the 347th RQW was realigned from ACC to AFSOC in an effort to bring all CSAR assets under the same command. 

On April 3, 2006, the 347th RQW was realigned from AFSOC to ACC to ensure CSAR assets are directly linked to the combat air forces and the personnel they support.

MISSION CHANGES
Amidst the transition to a combat search and rescue wing, Moody gained two sizeable tenant units, the 479th Flying Training Group and the 820th Security Forces Group, while transitioning out of its operational fighter force. 

The 70th Fighter Squadron inactivated in June 2000, and operational control of the 23rd Fighter Group at Pope AFB, N.C. transferred to the 4th Fighter Wing, Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C. 

In Oct. 2000, the 69th Fighter Squadron began inactivating and was officially inactivated in February 2001. The 68th Fighter Squadron followed on April 30, 2001.
July 31, 2000, the 479th Flying Training Group activated at Moody as a tenant unit. The Group consists of four operational training squadrons. The 49th and 435th Flying Training Squadrons operate the newly upgraded T-38C aircraft, and the 3rd Flying Training Squadron, which activated on April 3, 2001, operates the T-6A “Texan II” aircraft. The Group conducts initial Joint Primary Aircraft Training (JPATS) and Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF) for the Air Force’s newest generation of aviators. The 39th Flying Training Squadron, part of the Air Force Reserve Command, activated on April 2, 2001, under the 479th FTG, and provides reserve instructor pilots to augment their active duty counterparts. 

The 479th reports directly to the AETC based at Randolph AFB, Texas. 

The 820th SFG, activated at Moody in March 2001, brought an additional 625 military personnel to the Valdosta area. The Group consists of three squadrons – the 822nd SFS, which activated in September 2000, 823rd SFS, which activated in January 2001 and 824th which activated in November 2001. The 820th mission centers on providing highly trained, mobile, security forces capable of providing force protection for initial U.S. “first-in” forces to any operating location in support of the Air Force Global Engagement mission.

Moody Air Force Base covers 11,500 acres in Valdosta, Georgia. The 347th Rescue Wing is to organize, train, and employ a combat-ready, HC-130, HH60 rescue wing that consists of 3,400 military and civilian personnel including Avon Park Gunnery Range in Flordia. The wing supports the 479th Air Education and Training Command Flying Training and 820th Security Forces Groups in all operations. The wing also execute worldwide peacetime and combat search and rescue operations in support of humanitarian and U.S. national security. 

 It employs over 15,000 civilians and active duty military personnel in an city that has a population of about 47,000 people. The DoD host for Moody is the 347^th Support Group, and the base has 3 fighter squadrons and 2 rescue squadrons assigned to it, including HC-130, F-16, A-10 and HH-60 aircraft. Moody is an Air and Ground combat-ready base. Moody's mission is to provide combat readiness anywhere in the world within 24 hours.

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Morven

Morven is a city in Brooks County, Georgia, United States. The population was 634 at the 2000 census and is located at 30°56′39″N, 83°30′03″W (30.944263, -83.500796).  It is famous locally for its peach production.

Located just west of Valdosta in southwest Georgia, on the Florida border, Brooks is a county of moss-laden oaks and a long and honored history.

Brooks County Courthouse

In 1818,  U.S. President Andrew Jackson made a treaty with the Spanish and the Native Americans and claimed the land that is now Brooks County for the United States. Settlers later came down the Coffee Road from middle Georgia in their covered wagons, ox-drawn carts, and buggies. These early settlers had three things uppermost in their minds: religion, education, and agriculture. Roads were projected to run from the courthouse to each part of the county.

Founded on December 11, 1858, Brooks County was created from portions of Lowndes and Thomas counties. The county was named for Preston S. Brooks of South Carolina, an extremely popular young legislator known for his intensely southern sentiments and his zealous defense of southern rights. In 1853 Brooks was elected to Congress as a States' Rights Democrat and served until his death four years later, at the age of thirty-eight. A year later the Georgia legislature showed their appreciation of him by naming a county for him.

The largest town in Brooks County, Quitman, was named the county seat.

Betty Sheffield Camellia

The first courthouse, a small, temporary building, opened in 1859. A permanent edifice was begun in the same year, but the Civil War (1861-65) delayed its construction. That courthouse, completed in 1864, is still in use today, although it has undergone remodeling and modernizing. Quitman is known as the Camellia City because of the plants grown there, and also because Betty Sheffield, developer of the well-known camellia variety of the same name, was a longtime resident. Other small towns in the county include Barney (famous for its peaches), Barwick, Morven, and Pavo.

According to the 2000 U.S. census the population of Brooks County was 16,450. The Brooks County School System is the largest employer in the county, with more than 370 employees. The Presbyterian Home employs more than 300, and the hospital provides about 125 jobs. The largest industries include Langboard, a manufacturer of pine building materials, which employs more than 100; the Beech Island Knitting Company, which employs about 120 workers; and Micro Craft, which employs approximately 150.

New Georgia Encyclopedia Brooks County

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 4.5 km² (1.7 mi²). 4.5 km² (1.7 mi²) of it is land and 0.57% is water.

Naylor

Naylor is a suburb of Valdosta and is in the Metro Valdosta area.  It is conveniently located on a major highway that passes directly through both towns.

Quitman

Quitman, incorporated December 19, 1859, is the county seat of Brooks County. The city was named in honor of General John A. Quitman, who served under Zachary Taylor as a soldier and later enjoyed a successful career in politics.  Quitman is locally famed for antiques.

The courthouse in Brooks County was built in 1859 and extensively remodeled in 1892. The courthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Quitman Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The district contains late 19th and early 20th century brick buildings in the commercial district and mainly wood frame homes from various periods and styles in the residential area. The streets are laid out in a grid with several theme parks.

According to 2000 Census, the City of Preston had a population of 453 persons. Between 1990 and 2000, the city experienced a population increase of 16.8%, compared to the state growth during this period of 26.4%.

Ray City

Berrien County, in south Georgia, was formed from parts of Coffee, Irwin, and Lowndes counties in February 1856. Berrien is Georgia's 116th county, with an area of 452 square miles. The county was named for John Macpherson Berrien, a Savannah lawyer who served variously as a judge (with a stint on the Supreme Court of Georgia), a state senator, a U.S. senator, and the U.S. attorney general under President Andrew Jackson. In the War of 1812 (1812-15) he was captain of the Georgia Hussars, a volunteer company from Savannah. He was also the first president of the Georgia Historical Society.

The

Berrien County Courthouse

county seat of Berrien is Nashville, incorporated in 1892 and the site of the county courthouse, which was built in 1898. Other incorporated towns in the county are Alapaha, Enigma, and Ray City.

Alapaha was incorporated in 1881 on the site of a Seminole village with the same name. Its city hall is located in the old Alapaha Station, the former depot for the now defunct Brunswick and Albany Railroad. Some believe that Alapaha was the Creek word for "other side"; others believe it was the word Timucuan Indians used for "bear." The Alapaha Station Celebration occurs the second weekend of each November.

Enigma was incorporated in 1906. Histories of the town's name are apocryphal, and so as one source opined, the name remains an enigma. The Georgia writer Harry Crews   used Enigma as the setting for his first novel, The Gospel Singer (1968).

Ray City was incorporated in 1909 as Ray's Mill. The white settlement dates to 1863, when locals knew it as Rays Pond. The current name was adopted in 1915, after the town was moved to the railroad junction.

Informally, Berrien styles itself the "Bell Pepper Capital of the World," and the economy of the county is primarily agricultural, concentrating on tobacco, corn, soybeans, peanuts, cotton, vegetables, hogs, beef, and forest products. One of Georgia's first post roads opened in Berrien County in 1823 to enable residents to send their crops to Florida. In 2000 manufacturing was responsible for 23 percent of industry in Berrien County, followed by education, health, and services (18 percent), and retail sectors (16 percent). The largest employers are Amoco Fabrics and Fibers Company (specializing in polypropylene products); Chaparral Boats, Inc.; and Health Care of Berrien County. Residents are proud of their fifty-acre industrial park, located just east of Nashville, and plan to double its size.

Four buildings 

Old Berrien County Jail

in Berrien County are on the National Register of Historic Places: the courthouse, the Alapaha Colored School, the Old Berrien County Jail, and the William G. Harrison/Eulalie Taylor House. The Alapaha Colored School was the only school for African American children in the northern part of the county from 1924 through 1953. Unusual in rural Georgia at the time for its size (it held four classrooms, rather than the usual one), the two-story, wood-frame building is one of a few still standing in the state. The classrooms accommodated eleven coeducational grades. The school closed in 1954 when all of Berrien County's African American schools were consolidated into Nashville schools. Thereafter, the building served as classroom space for World War II veterans taking GED classes and as a Masonic lodge; since 2002 it has housed the Alapaha Library and Museum.

The Old Berrien County Jail, located in Nashville, is also known as the Berrien Historical Building and Agricultural Museum. The William G. Harrison/Eulalie Taylor House on Bartow Street in Nashville was built in the early twentieth century by the architect William G. Harrison and now holds law offices.

A state-supported park, the Paradise Public Fishing Area,

Paradise Public Fishing Area

is also located in the county. Its 1,060 acres include numerous lakes and ponds, making it attractive for outdoor recreation of all kinds, including fishing and picnicking.

The population, according to the 2000 U.S. census, was 16,235 (85.5 percent white, 11.4 percent black, and 2.4 percent Hispanic), an increase of nearly 15 percent since 1990.

New Georgia Encyclopedia Berrien County

 

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Remerton

Remerton is a small former cotton mill-town located in Lowndes County.  As Valdosta has grown, Remerton is now completely surrounded by the larger town.  It serves as a small business and entertainment hub in the Valdosta State University area of town. 

Lowndes County in southwest Georgia was created in 1825 by an act of the state legislature. The county was named for William Jones Lowndes, whose father, Rawlins Lowndes, had been a Revolutionary War (1775-83) leader from South Carolina. Lowndes County was originally bordered by Irwin County to the north, Ware County to the east, Florida to the south, and Thomas County to the west.

In 1827 settlers established the first town, Franklinville, and designated it the county seat. In 1833 a courthouse was built at Lowndesville (located at the junction of the Little and Withlacoochee rivers), which then became the

Lowndes County Courthouse

new county seat. Four years later Lowndesville was renamed Troupville, in honor of Georgia governor George Troup. According to the 1840 census, there were 4,394 whites and 1,180 African Americans in the county at that time. On December 12, 1859, Lowndes County commissioners purchased 140 acres for $1,250 to establish a new county seat, which they named Valdosta after Val d'Aosta, Troup's plantation home. The reason for the move was to connect with a railroad line from Savannah. The first train passed through Valdosta on July 4, 1860. Between 1890 and 1916, Valdosta became the largest inland market for Sea Island cotton in the world. The arrival of the boll weevil in 1915 caused the eventual destruction of cotton crops across the state.

One

Strickland Cotton Mills

of the largest employers in early Lowndes County was the Strickland Cotton Mills, put into operation in 1900 by B. F. Strickland, the company's president. Employees of the mill lived in a company town named Remerton, which still exists today, although the mill has been torn down. Timber and turpentine were major industries in Lowndes County in the early 1900s. The American Turpentine Farmers Association was founded in 1936, with its headquarters in Valdosta. Judge Harley Langdale began buying timberland and formed the Langdale Forest Products Company, one of the largest companies in Lowndes County. The second plant to bottle Coca-Cola in the world was located in Lowndes County. By 1936 the plant was one of the first modern plants in south Georgia and served a seven-county area.

In

Valdosta State University

1906 South Georgia State Normal College was founded in Valdosta to provide higher education opportunities to women in the area. The school was renamed Georgia State Women's College in 1922. After World War II many men wanted to attend college. The school became coeducational in 1950 and was renamed Valdosta State College. The college became Valdosta State University on July 1, 1993.

Besides Valdosta and Remerton, Lowndes County also is home to the city of Hahira (incorporated in October 1891), famous for its Honey Bee Festival; Lake Park, a city surrounded by lakes that is home to several outlet malls; and Dasher. Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta is home to the 347th Rescue Wing, the Security Forces Wing, and the Training Wing.

Lowndes County continues to grow even as other counties in Georgia are losing population. There were 92,115 people in the county according to the 2000 U.S. census, a significant increase over its 75,981 residents in 1990.

Statenville

Echols County, on Georgia's border with Florida, was carved from Clinch and Lowndes counties in 1858 and named in honor of Robert M. Echols, who commanded troops in the Mexican War (1846-48) after serving a total of twenty years in the state legislature. Before white settlers arrived, the inhabitants of the area were Seminole Indians. Sparsely populated, Echols County contains no incorporated towns.

The county seat, Statenville, was first called "Troublesome" after nearby Troublesome Creek. The name was changed when the town was chartered in 1859. There are some stories that its new name was a

Mayday

misreading of "Statesville," which was subsequently used on some maps, but locals believe that the intent was to name it for James W. Staten, a local farmer and store owner. Two wooden courthouses were used from 1859 until 1897, when the second burned down. The business of government was then carried on in rented halls until 1899. The current courthouse was built in 1956. In 1958 the state legislature redrew the city's boundaries to include only the courthouse square; this action resulted in the city's having no residents, and in 1965 Statenville voters turned down the opportunity for a new city charter. Echols County is one of only three in Georgia whose county seat is unincorporated. In addition to Statenville, the county contains the unchartered communities of Fruitland, Haylow, Howell, Mayday, Needmore, Potter, and Tarver.

More than 90 percent of Echols County land is pine forest, most of it privately owned. Historically the economy has been based on agriculture and forestry. Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and mining make up the largest employment sector, followed by manufacturing; educational,

Rentz Family

health, and social services; and the retail trade. More than 80 percent of the county's population works outside the county.

The history of Echols County is dominated by the presence of the Langdale Forest Products Company, founded in 1894 by John Wesley Langdale. Langdale started the business by leasing acres of turpentine timber, and with his sons Billy, Harley, and Noah, he built it into one of the largest wood and wood by-product manufacturers in America. The company owns much of the land in Echols County, although it is based in Valdosta (Lowndes County). As of 2004, the largest employers in the county are Corbett Electrical Construction, David Corbett Farm, Farm Hands Leasing, KMA Employee Leasing, and R & H Farms.

In 1910 the Statenville Railway connected Statenville to Haylow, in the northern part of the county, but the railway ceased operations in 1924. Despite the county's isolation, residents have joined together to form a unified school system. Between 1898 and 1945, there were seventy-seven schools scattered

Echols County Courthouse

throughout the county, many of them open just six months a year. School-bus transportation was first provided in 1917, enabling some of the schools to consolidate their operations, and by 1928 the number of schools had been reduced to fourteen. In 1931 the Echols Consolidated School, a brick building in Statenville, was built, and by 1950 all white schoolchildren in the county attended it. Black schools began consolidating in 1941, and in 1948 the Herctoma School was built for African American children. The two schools were integrated in 1970, forming the Statenville Consolidated School. Situated on the campus of the former Echols Consolidated School, the school was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Notable residents include businessman John Wesley Langdale and fiction writer Janice Daugharty.

The Alapaha and Suwannee rivers flow through the county and provide opportunities for fishing and boating.

According to the 2000 U.S. census, the population of Echols County is 3,754 (77.1 percent white, 6.9 percent black, and 19.7 percent Hispanic). The population showed a 60.8 percent increase since 1990.

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Photo / Data Credits
Zip Data provided by Xionetic Technologies  Check for updates HERE
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Historical information provided by the New Georgia Encyclopedia, www.georgia.gov, and Wikipedia.

Photos from: Clay Browning, City of Valdosta, New Georgia Encyclopaedia,
www.georgia.gov , Wikipedia, gmacrealestate.com

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