county
A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
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 ...
. As of the 2020 census, the population was 12,583. 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 ...
The county was named for Logan Edwin Bleckley, a soldier and Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia. The state constitutional amendment to create the county was proposed by the
Georgia General Assembly
The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Each of the General Assembly's 236 members serve two-year terms and are directl ...
on July 30, 1912, and
ratified
Ratification is a principal's legal confirmation of an act of its agent. In international law, ratification is the process by which a state declares its consent to be bound to a treaty. In the case of bilateral treaties, ratification is usuall ...
November 5, 1912. Bleckley County was formerly home to Middle Georgia College, the oldest two-year public college in the nation. In 2013 it merged with
Macon State College
Macon State College was a four-year state college unit of the University System of Georgia. On Jan. 8, 2013, it was merged with Middle Georgia College into a new institution, Middle Georgia State College, which was renamed on July 1, 2015 to ...
to become Middle Georgia State University.
Bleckley County High School made news in March 2010 for allowing a same-sex couple to attend its senior prom, after another same-sex couple in Mississippi were denied attendance at another senior prom.
Government
Bleckley County is one of eight remaining counties in Georgia that operates under a sole commissioner form of government, with a single
county commissioner
A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the County (United States)#County government, county government in some U.S. state, states of ...
acting as the county executive and legislative branches. The current County Commissioner is Mike Davis, the Sheriff is Daniel Cape, the Fire Chief is Brock Wilcher, the Clerk of Superior Court is Dianne C. Brown, the Tax Commissioner is Paige Baggs, and the Probate Judge is Hon. Jonathan Fordham.
Bleckly County's sole commissioner form of government was discussed in Holder v. Hall, decided by the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
on June 30, 1994.
Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (1.5%) is water. The county is located in the upper
Atlantic coastal plain
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...
region of the state.
The eastern quarter of Bleckley County, roughly in a line from west of Danville running southeast, is located in the Lower Oconee River sub-basin of the Altamaha River basin. The central quarter of the county, between Cochran and the previous line, is located in the Little
Ocmulgee River
The Ocmulgee River () is a western tributary of the Altamaha River, approximately 255 mi (410 km) long, in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the westernmost major tributary of the Altamaha.Wilkinson County - north
* Twiggs County - north
* Laurens County - east
* Dodge County - southeast
* Pulaski County - southwest
* Houston County - west
Empire
An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...
*Cochran-Bleckley Cotton & Peanut Museum
*Cochran Motor Speedway & Kart Track
*Greene Acres Farm
*Gully Branch Tree Farm
*Lil Cochran R/C Speedway
*Mae Chapel
*Middle Georgia Equestrian Center
*Ocmulgee Public Fishing Area
*Ocmulgee Water Trail
*Ocmulgee Wildlife Management Area
*Terry L. Coleman Museum and Archives
*Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park
List of counties in Georgia
The U.S. state of Georgia is divided into 159 counties, the second-highest number after Texas, which has 254 counties. Under the Georgia State Constitution, all of its counties are granted home rule to deal with problems that are purely loca ...