Georgia Trivia & Tidbits

Looking for Georgia trivia? Try our list Georgia little know facts, tidbits and trivia.

Villa Rica (pop. 4,134) is among the towns that claim to be home to the state's first gold rush. The north Georgia community traces its gold history to 1826, a story highlighted at the city's Pine Mountain Gold Museum located at the site of an actual gold mine.

first appeared: 1/24/2010

Covering more than 9,000 acres, F.D. Roosevelt State Park, near Pine Mountain (pop. 1,141), is the state's largest park. It includes the 23-mile-long Pine Mountain Trail.

first appeared: 1/10/2010

For a better look at the moon and stars, retired glass-factory worker and self-taught astronomer Howard Sims, of Madison County (pop. 25,730), built an 18-foot-tall home observatory with a 700-pound rotating domed roof to house a 300-pound telescope, which he also built.

first appeared: 12/27/2009

Amana Academy in Alpharetta (pop. 34,854) opened in 2005 as the state's first public elementary school to require students to learn Arabic. Arabic is considered by educators and policymakers to be a language of economic and cultural significance.

first appeared: 12/13/2009

The state's two oldest bells, dated 1740 and 1752, call people to worship at the Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ebenezer. Completed in 1769, the brick church is the oldest house of worship in the state and the only building remaining in the Colonial-era community near Rincon (pop. 4,376).

first appeared: 11/29/2009

Since 1961, the football team at Georgia Tech in Atlanta has been led onto the field by a 1930 Model A Ford Sport Coupe called the Ramblin' Wreck.

first appeared: 11/15/2009

In 1929, at a carnival near Atlanta, toy salesman Edwin S. Lowe watched an excited crowd play a game with dried beans placed on cards stamped with numbers that were called out by a pitchman. When a player filled a line with beans, he shouted "Beano!" Back home in New York, Lowe invited friends to play the game and an excited winner shouted "Bingo!" instead, giving a name to one of America's favorite games.

first appeared: 11/1/2009

Musician Tommy Durden (1919-1999), who was born in Morgan County (pop. 15,457), played steel guitar for Tex Ritter and Johnny Cash, sang and wrote many songs, but is best remembered as the man who, with Mae Boren Axton and Elvis Presley, wrote Presley's "Heartbreak Hotel" in 1956. The idea for the song came to Durden after reading a newspaper article about a hotel guest who committed suicide and left a one-line note: "I walk a lonely street."

first appeared: 10/18/2009

Gymnast Courtney Kupets, a student at the University of Georgia in Athens, won the 2009 Honda-Broderick Cup, given to the top female college athlete in the United States. After missing part of the 2008 season with an Achilles injury, Kupets returned and led her team to its fifth consecutive NCAA championship, and she also won four individual titles.

first appeared: 10/4/2009

In 1953, Priscilla the Pink Pig monorail ride debuted at Rich's department store in Atlanta to the delight of children who enjoyed an elevated view of the store's toy department. Today, the tradition continues during the holiday season when children ride The Pink Pig train outside Macy's at Lenox Square Mall.

first appeared: 9/20/2009

On Valentine's Day, the post offices in Juliette and Romeo, Mich. (pop. 3,721), team up for a postage cancellation representing the Shakespearean sweethearts.

first appeared: 9/6/2009

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta formerly were called the Communicable Disease Center, which was founded in 1946 and focused on fighting malaria by killing mosquitoes. Today, the CDC is the nation's premier health promotion, prevention and preparedness agency, and a global leader in public health.

first appeared: 8/23/2009

Completed in 1839, Bulloch Hall in Roswell (pop. 79,334) was built by Maj. James Stephens Bulloch, one of Roswell's first settlers. Bulloch's youngest daughter, Mittie, married Theodore Roosevelt Sr. in 1853 in the house. Their son, Theodore, became the nation's 26th president.

first appeared: 8/9/2009

In May 2008, Joshua Packwood, 22, became the first white valedictorian in the 141-year history of Morehouse College, a historically black college in Atlanta.

first appeared: 7/26/2009

—An 1802 bell that originally hung in the bell tower of the City Exchange Building in Savannah and was used to announce important occasions, council meetings and fires is believed to be the state's oldest bell. Today, it's housed in a replica bell tower near City Hall.

first appeared: 7/12/2009

—Clarks Hill Lake, also known as J. Strom Thurmond Lake, is the largest U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project east of the Mississippi River. The lake was created by Thurmond Dam, located on the Savannah River north of Augusta.

first appeared: 6/28/2009

—The Adelphean Society, now Alpha Delta Pi, is believed to be the first sorority for college women. It was founded in 1851 at Wesleyan College in Macon (pop. 97,255).

first appeared: 6/14/2009

—Called the "black Babe Ruth," Josh Gibson was famous in the Negro League for hitting 500-foot and greater home runs. The National Baseball Hall of Famer, who hit "almost 800 home runs," was born in 1911 in Buena Vista (pop. 1,664) and died in 1947, three months before Jackie Robinson integrated major league baseball. Gibson played for the Pittsburgh Crawfords and the Homestead Grays in Pennsylvania.

first appeared: 5/17/2009

—Hoschton (pop. 1,070) residents scared up some fun last fall by making 5,441 scarecrows and setting a world record for having the most scarecrows in one location, according to the World Records Academy. Some scarecrows were dressed as University of Georgia football players, Elvis and the cast of The Wizard of Oz.

first appeared: 5/3/2009

–More than 300 photos of babies, known as the "eggplant babies," decorate a wall at Scalini's Italian Restaurant in Smyrna (pop. 40,999). According to restaurant lore, the eggplant parmigiana dish induces labor in mothers–to–be within 48 hours.

first appeared: 4/19/2009

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