Historic Sites in Tift County

The history of Tift County

Tift County was created in 1905 from parts of Berrien, Irwin and Worth counties and named for Nelson Tift, an influential civic and political leader of the Albany area. The county seat, Tifton, traces its beginning to 1872, when Nelson Tift's nephew, Henry Tift, started a sawmill on the site; the town was incorporated in 1890. Agricultural education and research soon defined the young county. The Second District Agricultural and Mechanical School, authorized in 1906, enrolled its first students in 1908, and after several name changes it became Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in 1933. In 1918 the General Assembly established the Coastal Plain Experiment Station in Tifton, where scientists including Glenn Burton developed improved crop varieties; the station is now the University of Georgia's Tifton campus. By 1945 peanuts had become the leading cash crop of south Georgia. The county's many growers of plants and vegetables, shipping their products far beyond the state, earned Tifton the nickname "Plant Capital of the World," and Interstate 75 later brought new commerce. The Georgia Museum of Agriculture and Historic Village interprets that rural past with more than 35 restored buildings on 95 acres, including a working sawmill and a general store. The small town of Ty Ty takes its name from the trees that lined Ty Ty Creek.

Sources: georgiaencyclopedia.orggeorgiaencyclopedia.orgtifton.caes.uga.edu