Georgia is predominantly known as the state with the best Southern cooking, and the world’s largest peaches, peanuts, and pecan purveyors. However, there is so much more to this fine state than what they teach in the textbooks. For example, we bet you didn’t know these random 10 facts about the wonderful state of Georgia:

  1. Georgia, with its plentiful pine forests throughout the state, produces one half of the WORLD’s resin and turpentine and close to 75% of the United States’ supply.

Flickr Andrey Belenko

  1. The official state fish is the largemouth bass.

Flickr USFWS Mountain-Prairie

  1. It was once illegal to put an ice cream cone in your back pocket in Atlanta.

Flickr Leo Hildalgo Why anyone would want to do so….is beyond me. But apparently, the law may be enforced because if a horse followed you home, it wasn’t considered stealing…

  1. The only county in Georgia named after a woman is Hart county.

Flickr Amanda Shoemaker The county was named after Nancy Hart, a patriot and warrior in the fight against the British during the Revolutionary War.

  1. In 1945, Georgia became the first state to lower the legal voting age from 21 to 18.

Flickr Brian R.

  1. Georgia is home to the invention of the Cherokee written alphabet.

Flickr Ali Eminov

  1. The largest wild hog found ever discovered was found in Alapaha Georgia.

Flickr Loozrboy This big guy weighed in at 1,000 pounds and measured over 12 feet in length. His nickname? “Hogzilla”.

  1. The Geographic Center of Georgia is in Twiggs County, 18 miles southeast of Macon.

Flickr Jimmy Emerson DVM So if you ever want to travel to the middle of the state…

  1. Each year Georgia serves as a host to the International Poultry Trade Show, the largest poultry convention in the world.

Flickr U.S. Department of Agriculture

  1. Atlanta was originally named Terminus and Marthasville.

Flickr Jack Kennard Marthasville was an option because of Governor Wilson Lumpkin’s daughter. Who’s happy they changed it?!

Know any more fun facts about Georgia? We’d love to hear!

Flickr Andrey Belenko

Flickr USFWS Mountain-Prairie

Flickr Leo Hildalgo

Why anyone would want to do so….is beyond me. But apparently, the law may be enforced because if a horse followed you home, it wasn’t considered stealing…

Flickr Amanda Shoemaker

The county was named after Nancy Hart, a patriot and warrior in the fight against the British during the Revolutionary War.

Flickr Brian R.

Flickr Ali Eminov

Flickr Loozrboy

This big guy weighed in at 1,000 pounds and measured over 12 feet in length. His nickname? “Hogzilla”.

Flickr Jimmy Emerson DVM

So if you ever want to travel to the middle of the state…

Flickr U.S. Department of Agriculture

Flickr Jack Kennard

Marthasville was an option because of Governor Wilson Lumpkin’s daughter. Who’s happy they changed it?!

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