Georgia

The highest point is 4,784' (Brasstown Bald Mtn. aka Mt. Enotah), and the lowest is the Atlantic Ocean.

Cumberland Island horses

Georgia is 2.6% water.

The wild horses living on Cumberland Island are descendants of those brought by de Soto in 1540.

After the Civil War, Georgia reentered the Union in 1868.  In 1869, it was expelled from the Union for refusing to ratify the 15th Amendment (which prohibits using a person's race to deny him the right to vote).  In 1870, Georgia ratified the amendment and was readmitted to the Union.

In 1893, a 15-year-old in Dalton made the 1st cotton tufted bedspread - the forerunner of chenille bedspreads.  After WWI it became a cottage industry with companies paying 10,000 women by the hour to make these bedspreads.  They were sold along U.S. Hwy 41 between Dalton and Cartersville, known as Bedspread Boulevard.

Farmers in the 1930's were paid $5/acre to plant kudzu to stop erosion, a good example of unintended consequences.

Georgia has one of the youngest populations among US states, ranking 47% in people 65 and older.

Georgia has the 2nd fastest-growing Asian population in the U.S.

Georgia is #3 in the U.S. in both percentage and number of black residents.

Atlanta ranks behind only San Francisco and Seattle in percentage of LGBT residents.

Callaway Gardens

Georgia produces more poultry than any other state. Georgia is the #1 producer of pecans in the world.

The Callaway Gardens (Pine Mountain) have 700 varieties of azaleas, more than 1000 butterflies, the world's largest display of hollies, and the largest glassed-in conservatory in the world.

On April 1, 2009, the Georgia Senate passed a resolution on a vote of 43-1 that reads:

   Any Act by the U.S. Congress, Executive Order by the President or by Judicial    Order which assumes a power not delegated to the U.S. government by the        U.S. Constitution and which serves to diminish the liberty of any of the several    States or their citizens shall constitute a nullification of the Constitution of the    U.S. by the government of the U.S.

The theory underlying this resolution apparently was that states have the right to nullify any laws that they think exceed the powers in the Constitution.  The question of whether a law, executive order or judicial order violates the Constitution would normally be litigated in court and ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.  This resolution appears to bypass that process and allow the states to declare for themselves what is and is not constitutional.

On April 16th, Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote, "It wasn't quite the firing on Fort Sumter that launched the Civil War.  But on April 1, your Georgia Senate did threaten by a vote of 43-1 to secede from and even disband the U.S."