Historic Sites in Butts County

The history of Butts County

Butts County was created by an act of December 24, 1825, from parts of Henry and Monroe counties. It is named for Captain Samuel Butts, a Virginia-born officer killed at the Battle of Calabee Creek in present-day Alabama during the Creek War of 1813–1814. The county seat, Jackson, was named for Andrew Jackson, who passed through the area in 1818 on his way to the First Seminole War. The county's most consequential site is Indian Springs, a sulfur spring that white settlers first documented in 1792. There, Muscogee (Creek) leaders signed treaties in 1821 and 1825 that surrendered vast lands to Georgia. The 1825 Treaty of Indian Springs, signed by William McIntosh, who operated a hotel at the springs, gave up the remaining Muscogee lands in the state; many Muscogee regarded the agreement as a betrayal, and McIntosh was killed by members of the nation about three months later. The springs remained a popular resort, and in 1927 the grounds became Indian Springs State Park. Union troops burned an earlier courthouse during the Civil War; the present courthouse dates to 1898. In the early twentieth century the Lloyd Shoals Dam on the Ocmulgee River brought hydroelectric power and new industry.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiahistory.com