Telfair County, Georgia | |
|---|---|
 Telfair County Courthouse in McRae-Helena | |
 Location within the U.S. state ofGeorgia | |
 Georgia's location within theU.S. | |
| Coordinates:31°56′N82°56′W / 31.93°N 82.94°W /31.93; -82.94 | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Georgia |
| Founded | December 10, 1807; 218 years ago (1807) |
| Named after | Edward Telfair |
| Seat | McRae-Helena |
| Largest city | McRae-Helena |
| Area | |
• Total | 444 sq mi (1,150 km2) |
| • Land | 437 sq mi (1,130 km2) |
| • Water | 6.7 sq mi (17 km2) 1.5% |
| Population (2020) | |
• Total | 12,477 |
| • Density | 29/sq mi (11/km2) |
| Time zone | UTC−5 (Eastern) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
| Congressional district | 8th |
| Website | telfaircounty |
Telfair County is acounty located in thesouthern portion of theU.S. state ofGeorgia. As of the2020 census, the population was 12,477.[1] The largest city andcounty seat isMcRae-Helena.[2]
In 2009, researchers from theFernbank Museum of Natural History announced having found artifacts they associated with the 1541Hernando de Soto Expedition at a private site near the Ocmulgee River, the first such find betweenTallahassee, Florida and westernNorth Carolina. De Soto's expedition was well recorded, but researchers have had difficulties finding artifacts from sites where he stopped. This site was an indigenous village occupied by the historicCreek people from the early 15th century into the 16th century. It was located further southeast than de Soto's expedition was thought to go in Georgia.[3]
Archaeologists associated with Atlanta's Fernbank Museum of Natural History have excavated a 2,000-acre (8.1 km2) plot nearMcRae-Helena and approximately a mile from theOcmulgee River, beginning in 2005. In 2009 they announced finding evidence of aSpanish settlement dating to the first half of the 16th century.[4] The archaeologists originally believed that the artifacts may have come from a settlement founded by Spanish leaderLucas Vázquez de Ayllón from Hispaniola in 1526 and briefly occupied by hundreds of colonists. The group encountered hard conditions and fewer than 200 survived to return to Hispaniola.[5]
Additional research suggests that the site instead was one visited in 1541 by thede Soto Expedition. Researchers have recoveredMurano glass beads, made inVenice,Italy, and brought by the Spanish for trading with Native Americans;pottery fragments, andiron weapons. Some of the beads bear achevron pattern. Such beads have been identified as a hallmark of the de Soto expedition, due to the limited period of time in which they were produced. Excavations have also produced six metal objects, including three iron tools and a silver pendant.[6]
The site is further west than scholars had earlier believed that the de Soto expedition had traveled, based on documentation from his expedition. This was the first evidence found of his expedition betweenTallahassee, Florida, where excavations have revealed artifacts of his expedition, and western North Carolina[4] where another site has been found.
What we have now is the best-documented collection of Spanish artifacts in Georgia; many are unique, and they are the only examples of certain artifacts ever found outside Florida.
— ArchaeologistDennis Blanton, 2009[6]
This site is believed to have been a Native American community, occupied from the end of the 15th century through the first decades of the 16th century. At that time, they had neither glass nor metal goods.[6] Blanton presented a paper on his findings on November 5, 2009, at the Southeastern Archaeological Conference inMobile, Alabama.[4]
The historicCreek people occupied much of this area of Georgia. Telfair County was established by European Americans on December 10, 1807, as part of Georgia. Development of the county largely took place afterIndian Removal in the 1830s of theCreek Confederacy, who had occupied a large territory, including the southern two thirds of present-day Georgia, for thousands of years. They were removed toIndian Territory west of the Mississippi River, in today's Oklahoma. The county is named forEdward Telfair, the sixteenthgovernor of Georgia and a member of theContinental Congress.[7]
Many of the first European-American settlers were Scottish immigrants and Scots-Irish migrants who traveled down the backcountry from Pennsylvania and Virginia.[8]
The world record largemouth according to theIGFA is shared by Manabu Kurita and George W. Perry. Kurita's bass was caught fromLake Biwa in Japan on July 2, 2009, and weighed 10.12 kilograms (22 lb 5 oz). Perry's bass was caught on June 2, 1932, from Montgomery Lake in Georgia and weighed 10.09 kilograms (22 lb 4 oz). Montgomery Lake is not a true lake but an oxbow off theOcmulgee River in betweenLumber City, Georgia andJacksonville, Georgia.
According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 444 square miles (1,150 km2), of which 437 square miles (1,130 km2) is land and 6.7 square miles (17 km2) (1.5%) is water.[9] The county contains at least 50artesian wells.
The southern two-thirds of Telfair County, bordered by a line fromMilan east toLumber City, are located in the LowerOcmulgee River sub-basin of theAltamaha River basin. The northern portion of the county is located in the Little Ocmulgee River sub-basin of the same Altamaha River basin.[10]
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1810 | 744 | — | |
| 1820 | 2,104 | 182.8% | |
| 1830 | 2,136 | 1.5% | |
| 1840 | 2,763 | 29.4% | |
| 1850 | 3,026 | 9.5% | |
| 1860 | 2,713 | −10.3% | |
| 1870 | 3,245 | 19.6% | |
| 1880 | 4,828 | 48.8% | |
| 1890 | 5,477 | 13.4% | |
| 1900 | 10,083 | 84.1% | |
| 1910 | 13,288 | 31.8% | |
| 1920 | 15,291 | 15.1% | |
| 1930 | 14,997 | −1.9% | |
| 1940 | 15,145 | 1.0% | |
| 1950 | 13,221 | −12.7% | |
| 1960 | 11,715 | −11.4% | |
| 1970 | 11,381 | −2.9% | |
| 1980 | 11,445 | 0.6% | |
| 1990 | 11,000 | −3.9% | |
| 2000 | 11,794 | 7.2% | |
| 2010 | 16,500 | 39.9% | |
| 2020 | 12,477 | −24.4% | |
| 2024 (est.) | 11,000 | [11] | −11.8% |
| U.S. Decennial Census[12] 1790-1880[13] 1890-1910[14] 1920-1930[15] 1930-1940[16] 1940-1950[17] 1960-1980[18] 1980-2000[19] 2010[20] | |||
| Race | Num. | Perc. |
|---|---|---|
| White (non-Hispanic) | 5,970 | 47.85% |
| Black or African American (non-Hispanic) | 4,326 | 34.67% |
| Native American | 28 | 0.22% |
| Asian | 30 | 0.24% |
| Other/mixed | 195 | 1.56% |
| Hispanic orLatino | 1,928 | 15.45% |
As of the2020 United States census, there were 12,477 people, 4,668 households, and 3,259 families residing in the county.
Telfair County had been a reliably Democratic county in itsSolid South days, but later became a swing county for the rest of the 20th century. The last Democrat to win the county was TennesseanAl Gore in 2000, and the county has trended towards the GOP in more recent elections.
| Year | Republican | Democratic | Third party(ies) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
| 1912 | 19 | 2.59% | 694 | 94.68% | 20 | 2.73% |
| 1916 | 29 | 3.51% | 773 | 93.47% | 25 | 3.02% |
| 1920 | 37 | 3.35% | 1,069 | 96.65% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1924 | 264 | 15.03% | 1,382 | 78.66% | 111 | 6.32% |
| 1928 | 332 | 13.90% | 2,057 | 86.10% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1932 | 45 | 5.65% | 746 | 93.60% | 6 | 0.75% |
| 1936 | 121 | 9.46% | 1,158 | 90.54% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1940 | 104 | 6.90% | 1,391 | 92.24% | 13 | 0.86% |
| 1944 | 174 | 12.78% | 1,187 | 87.22% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1948 | 75 | 6.65% | 712 | 63.18% | 340 | 30.17% |
| 1952 | 243 | 8.27% | 2,695 | 91.73% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1956 | 284 | 12.04% | 2,075 | 87.96% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1960 | 791 | 21.30% | 2,922 | 78.70% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1964 | 1,914 | 50.55% | 1,872 | 49.45% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1968 | 720 | 16.90% | 1,038 | 24.37% | 2,502 | 58.73% |
| 1972 | 2,245 | 76.57% | 687 | 23.43% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1976 | 637 | 15.27% | 3,534 | 84.73% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1980 | 1,173 | 29.76% | 2,700 | 68.51% | 68 | 1.73% |
| 1984 | 1,980 | 49.14% | 2,049 | 50.86% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1988 | 1,805 | 50.21% | 1,765 | 49.10% | 25 | 0.70% |
| 1992 | 1,324 | 31.58% | 2,238 | 53.39% | 630 | 15.03% |
| 1996 | 1,143 | 34.30% | 1,856 | 55.70% | 333 | 9.99% |
| 2000 | 1,693 | 48.47% | 1,777 | 50.87% | 23 | 0.66% |
| 2004 | 2,171 | 57.49% | 1,590 | 42.11% | 15 | 0.40% |
| 2008 | 2,486 | 56.81% | 1,862 | 42.55% | 28 | 0.64% |
| 2012 | 2,480 | 57.17% | 1,805 | 41.61% | 53 | 1.22% |
| 2016 | 2,450 | 64.54% | 1,313 | 34.59% | 33 | 0.87% |
| 2020 | 2,825 | 65.17% | 1,488 | 34.33% | 22 | 0.51% |
| 2024 | 2,930 | 69.53% | 1,274 | 30.23% | 10 | 0.24% |
Places adjacent to Telfair County, Georgia | ||||||||||||||||
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Municipalities and communities ofTelfair County, Georgia,United States | ||
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| Cities |  | |
| Town | ||
| Unincorporated communities | ||
| Footnotes | ‡This populated place also has portions in an adjacent county or counties | |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
