Historic Sites in Charlton County

The history of Charlton County

Charlton County was created by an act of February 18, 1854, from Camden County, with part of Ware County added the next year. It is named for Robert Milledge Charlton of Savannah, a judge, U.S. senator, and mayor of that city who died the year the county was formed. The area was originally home to Muscogee (Creek) people. The first county seat was Trader's Hill, a shipping point at the head of navigation on the St. Marys River. Railroads reshaped the county after the first train passed through in 1881, and Folkston grew up around a station on the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway. Named for Dr. William B. Folks of Waycross, Folkston replaced Trader's Hill as county seat in 1901 and became a busy stop for passengers traveling between Florida and the North. The county contains most of the Okefenokee Swamp, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt set aside as a federal wildlife refuge by executive order in 1937. Decades later, protests in 1997 against a proposed titanium mine near the swamp eventually led DuPont to donate 16,000 acres in 2003. Historic places include Sardis Church, organized before 1821 and the oldest congregation in the county, the 1928 courthouse listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the restored Folkston depot beside the Folkston Funnel train-watching platform.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiahistory.compresidency.ucsb.edu