Georgia Trivia & Tidbits - Page 2

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

—“Worship in your car, just as you are” is the theme of the drive-in services offered by the New Hope Methodist Church in Marietta (pop. 58,748). Worshippers can attend a conventional service indoors, or worship in their cars in the church parking lot.

first appeared: 12/29/2008

—Jonathan Miller, of Savannah, won the 2008 Best Teen Chef competition sponsored by The International Culinary Schools at The Art Institutes. The high school senior won a $40,000 scholarship, along with a chance to be an intern for a day at The Food Network Kitchens in New York City.

first appeared: 11/30/2008

—A large wild hog population in Abbeville (pop. 2,298) led to the town’s nickname, the “Wild Hog Capital of Georgia” and the annual Ocmulgee Wild Hog Festival.

first appeared: 11/16/2008

—Sometimes called “Georgia’s Little Grand Canyon,” Providence Canyon State Park near Lumpkin (pop. 1,369) features a multicolored network of gorges, some more than 100 feet deep.

first appeared: 11/2/2008

—The SAM Shortline Excursion Train with its vintage air-conditioned passenger cars rumbles through southwest Georgia and includes stops at Georgia Veterans State Park in Cordele (pop. 11,608); the Georgia Rural Telephone Museum in Leslie (pop. 455); Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village and Discovery Center in Americus (pop. 17,013); and the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site in Plains (pop. 637) and the former president’s boyhood home in Archery.

first appeared: 10/19/2008

—Born in 1849 on a plantation in Harris County (pop. 23,695), a blind slave known as “Blind Tom” Wiggins or Thomas Bethune toured concert halls across the nation as a musical oddity and performed at the White House. Wiggins could play any piece of music on the piano from memory after hearing it once.

first appeared: 10/5/2008

—Displayed since 1893, the Atlanta Cyclorama bills itself as the world’s largest oil painting. The nearly 16,000-square-foot panoramic painting, completed in 1886, depicts the Civil War Battle of Atlanta and is viewed from a rotating platform.

first appeared: 9/21/2008

—The Remington typewriter used by Margaret Mitchell to write Gone With the Wind, along with her library card, the books she used to research the 1936 novel and the Pulitzer Prize she won for the Southern classic, are on permanent display at the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library in Atlanta.

first appeared: 9/7/2008

—The Friendship Monument in Cartersville (pop. 15,925) is believed to be the only monument erected by a debtor to honor his creditors. During the Panic of 1857, Mark Anthony Cooper, owner of Etowah Iron Works, faced a financial crisis, and 38 friends came to his aid and signed notes totaling $100,000. When the debt was repaid in 1860, Cooper erected the monument with his benefactors’ names.

first appeared: 8/24/2008

—G. Wayne Clough, president of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, was named secretary of the Smithsonian Institution in March. Clough is the 12th person to head the world’s largest museum and research complex.

first appeared: 8/10/2008

—The most important rule at the 96-acre Deerlick Astronomy Village in Taliaferro County (pop. 2,077) is “no white light.” The unique village was built for stargazers by amateur astronomers in one of the darkest regions of the state. A 10-acre hilltop is open to stargazers who don’t want to buy or lease property for a cabin or observatory.

first appeared: 7/27/2008

—A monument near Hartwell (pop. 4,188) marks the Center of the World for the early Cherokee Indians. Trails radiated from the site, which was used for council meetings and for trading goods with the white men from Augusta and other settlements.

first appeared: 6/29/2008

—The state’s largest Southern magnolia tree grows in Tifton (pop. 15,060). The tree at Magnolia Tree Park is more than 400 years old, has a crown spread of 105 feet and is believed to be the second largest of its species in the nation.

first appeared: 6/15/2008

—The popular white bulldog mascot at the University of Georgia at Athens since 1956, Uga, or one of his successors, has been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated, appeared on a Wheaties cereal box and had a bit part in the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

first appeared: 6/1/2008

—In 1948, Alice Coachman became the first black woman to earn a gold medal at the Olympics when she won the high jump competition. Coachman was born in 1923 in Albany.

first appeared: 5/18/2008

—Cave Spring (pop. 975) got its name from a spring inside a limestone cave at what today is Rolater Park. Two million gallons of water flow from the spring daily.

first appeared: 5/4/2008

—Built in 1769, the red brick Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ebenezer in Effingham County (pop. 37,535) is the oldest church building in the state. Religious services still are held at the church.

first appeared: 3/9/2008

—The last of the 13 original colonies was Georgia, which was established by charter in 1732 by King George II. Founded in 1733 by James Oglethorpe, the colony was settled by transplanted inmates from debtors’ prisons in England, who were given an opportunity to begin life anew.

first appeared: 2/24/2008

—Molly Howard of Jefferson County High School in Louisville (pop. 2,712) was named 2008 National Principal of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. She was recognized for programs that helped boost student achievement and graduation rates.

first appeared: 2/10/2008

—Heaven Bound, a black folk drama that portrays the struggles and pitfalls of a group of pilgrims striving to reach the gates of heaven, has been performed since 1930 at the Big Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Atlanta. Heaven Bound is one of the longest running theatrical productions in the nation.

first appeared: 1/27/2008

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