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Valdosta History:
Valdosta
was incorporated on December 7, 1860, when it was designated
by the state legislature as the new county seat, formerly
at nearby Troupville. The railroad was built to Valdosta that
year, rather than Troupville, stimulating development in the
new county seat.[10] Many citizens of Troupville had already
relocated to Valdosta when the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad
was built four miles (about 6 km) away. On July 4, 1860, the
engine known as Satilla No. 3 pulled the first train into
Valdosta on the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad.
The
Satilla No. 3 was the first train to arrive in Valdosta on
July 4, 1860. Valdosta is located in the coastal plain of
Georgia and has a virtually flat landscape. It was once the
center of long-staple cotton growing in the United States,
a lucrative crop both before and after the Civil War. The
county had a majority-white population well before the war
with a substantial black population, as the cotton plantations
were dependent on masses of enslaved field laborers.
The
sixty miles (97 km) of railway between Valdosta and Waycross
were once the longest straight stretch of railroad in the
world. Today highways stretch through the county for miles
with hardly a curve, rise, or fall.
After
being bypassed by the railroad and losing the county seat,
Troupville was virtually abandoned. It had been named after
Governor George Troup, for whom Troup County, Georgia, was
also named. Valdosta was named after Troup's plantation, Valdosta
(occasionally the Val d'Osta spelling was used for the plantation).
Troup had named it after the Valle d'Aosta in Italy. The name
Aosta (Latin: Augusta), refers to Emperor Augustus. A long-standing
rumor held that the city's name meant "vale of beauty.
From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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