Folkston is a city in and the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Charlton County,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, United States. The population was 4,464 in 2020.

History

Folkston was founded on August 19, 1911. The city was named in honor of William Brandon Folks, M.D., a prominent physician and surgeon in his day. In the years 1925 through 1927, many new and commodious residences were built and several modern brick buildings were erected, including the Citizen Bank Block, the Masonic Temple building, a grammar school building, and a courthouse. Shortly after its creation, the village of Folkston was incorporated as a town government and functioned as a town until 1911 when the area was incorporated as a city. For a number of years, Folkston was the self-proclaimed "Marriage Capital of the World"; Floridians who could not endure their state's waiting period before tying the knot would cross the state line to wed.

Geography

Folkston is located near the southern boundary of Georgia at (30.834437, -82.004829). U.S. Routes 1, 23, and

301 __NOTOC__ Year 301 ( CCCI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Postumius and Nepotianus (or, less frequently, year 1054 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denominatio ...

pass through the city as Second Street, leading south 2 miles to the state line. Route 1 and 23 lead northwest to Waycross, while Route 301 leads north to Nahunta. The eastern entrance to the

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge The Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is a 402,000‑acre (1,627 km2) National Wildlife Refuge located in Charlton, Ware, and Clinch Counties of Georgia, and Baker County in Florida, United States. The refuge is administered from offic ...

is southwest of Folkston via GA 23 and GA 121. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, Folkston has a total area of , all land.

Demographics

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 4,464 people, 1,082 households, and 667 families residing in the city.

Attraction

Folkston Funnel

With a high percentage of rail traffic headed to Florida passing through Folkston, the rail lines through the city have acquired the nickname " The Folkston Funnel." To provide for a safe viewing situation, the city has built a platform for visitors, along with

picnic table A picnic table (or picnic bench) is a Table (furniture), table with benches (often attached), designed for working with and for picnic, outdoor dining. The term is often specifically associated with rectangular tables having an A-frame structure. ...

s, chairs,

barbecue pit Barbecue is a tradition often considered a quintessential part of American culture, especially the Southern United States. First introduced to the lands which would become the United States by the Taíno to Christopher Columbus, and from the S ...

s, restrooms, grills, and even

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

. At night, lights shine onto the

double track A double-track railway usually involves running one track in each direction, compared to a single-track railway where trains in both directions share the same track. Overview In the earliest days of railways in the United Kingdom, most li ...

if someone wanted to watch after sunset. Freight trains pass through the Folkston Funnel, and proceed to terminals such as

Jacksonville Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, and

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

. Freight trains that originate in Florida take the same routes in opposite direction. In addition,

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

trains pass through the Folkston Funnel, they do not stop there. At the covered viewing platform, there is an active scanner running and visitors can listen to train engineers.

Education

Charlton County School District

The Charlton County School District holds grades pre-school to grade twelve. It consists of three elementary schools and a high school. *Folkston Elementary School (named after the city of Folkston) - Pre-K to 4th grade *Bethune Middle School (named after Mary McLeod Bethune) - 5th to 8th grade *St. George Elementary School (located in St. George, not inside the city of Folkston) * Charlton County High School (named after Charlton County) - 9th to 12th grade

Notable people

Champ Bailey Roland "Champ" Bailey Jr. (born June 22, 1978) is an American former professional football player who was a cornerback in the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Georgia Bulldogs, where he earned consensus All-Ame ...

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional football (gridiron), professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, 1963, the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of profes ...

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

Boss Bailey Rodney "Boss" Bailey (born October 14, 1979) is an American former professional football player who was a linebacker in the National Football League (NFL). He was originally selected by the Detroit Lions in the second round of the 2003 NFL draft ...

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

who played in the National Football League, born in Folkston *Eldridge Milton, former NFL football linebacker for the Chicago Bears and his collegiate years at Clemson University was the first person from Folkston to play in the NFL. *Larry Smith Jr., former NFL career with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Green Bay Packers, played at the Florida State University. *

Courtney Williams Courtney Monae Williams (born May 11, 1994) is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Lynx of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Williams completed her high school basketball career at Charlton County Hig ...

- WNBA shooting guard for the

Minnesota Lynx The Minnesota Lynx are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Lynx compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member of the Western Conference (WNBA), Western Conference. The team won the WNBA ...