November 2018

Georgia: Empire State of the South

Posted on 11/02/2018 by Nathan Lewis in New Content Releases

Georgia Monument located at Chickamauga Battlefield in Poe Field. Part of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park.

Today, we are excited to announce that more than 585,000 aerial photos of Georgia are now available to search and view online. Georgia was named for King George II of England, it was founded in 1732 by a British Member of Parliament James Oglethorpe as a felon colony. Oglethorpe wanted to use the colony as a place for prisoners who could not pay their debts. The social reformer believed that many debtors were released back into cities without any form of support. He wanted to take these people and give them a second chance in a new place.  Georgia is often called the Empire State of the South and is also known as the Peach State. Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi River, the Okefenokee Swamp encompasses over 400,000 acres of canals; moss draped cypress trees, and lily pad prairies providing sanctuaries for hundreds of species of birds and wildlife including several endangered species. The beautiful landscape can be seen at the annual Masters Golf Tournament which is played at the Augusta National in Augusta every first week of April. the event was created after the club was denied as a venue for the US Open. There are some odd laws one should keep in mind while in Georgia as you might be breaking them unknowingly, Carrying ice cream in your back pocket on Sundays is against the law. There is also a law stating you cannot spread a rumor if it is false. You are not allowed to hook a giraffe to a pole or street lamp in Georgia and in Gainesville, the Chicken Capital of the World it is illegal to eat chicken with a fork.

Georgia was the last of the original 13 colonies and the 4th state to join the Union in 1776. Georgia was the first colony to produce cotton commercially, first planting it near Savannah in 1734. In 1828 Auraria, near the city of Dahlongea, was the site of the first Gold Rush in America. Wesleyan College is the birthplace of the first sororities as it became the first college in the world to grant degrees to women in 1839. In 1861 Georgia became the 5th state to join the Confederacy. Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park safeguards the sites of two major battles of the American Civil War: the Battle of Chickamauga and the Chattanooga Campaign making it the site of the bloodiest battle in American history. Coca-Cola was invented in May 1886 by Dr. John S. Pemberton in Atlanta. The name “Coca-Cola” was suggested by Dr. Pemberton’s bookkeeper. At present, the headquarter of Coca-Cola is in Atlanta. Atlanta is known as the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement; you can find Martin Luther King Jr.’s house on Auburn Ave. In 1945, Georgia became the first state to lower the legal voting age from 21 to 18. The 1996 Olympic Games were hosted by Atlanta, and the games were certainly the largest as a record 197 nations participated in the Games.

It’s no wonder that Georgia is an agricultural powerhouse, considering the diverse topography and climate of its 10.1 million acres of farmland. This land covers 28 percent of the state and ranges from coast to mountains, making it ideal for the production of a variety of agricultural commodities. There are 47,800 farms averaging 212 acres, one in seven Georgians is employed in agriculture, forestry or related fields. Georgia’s annual $13 billion farming value is composed of some top commodities, including broilers (chickens for meat), cotton, chicken eggs, vegetables, melons, peanuts and more. Poultry and eggs contributed $5.4 billion to Georgia’s total farming value, and more than two-thirds of Georgia’s counties are involved in poultry production and processing. Our collection has aerial photos of many of these farms dating back to 1977!

We invite you to come and take a look at these homes and farms in our collection of more than 585,000 aerial photos of this great state. Home is the place where you became you. Find your way back!