Macon Real Estate
Macon, Georgia, is the county seat of Bibb County and the center of commerce, business, healthcare, education and cultural activity for the mid-section of Georgia: the counties of Bibb, Houston, Jones, Peach, and Twiggs. Macon is located on the “fall line” of the Ocmulgee River, a geologically significant point, marked by crystalline mineral formations and dramatic crags and waterfalls, where the Atlantic Coastal Plain joins the higher Piedmont Plateau. The town of Macon was named by its early settlers, many of whom hailed from North Carolina, for North Carolina statesman and U.S. Senator Nathaniel Macon. The region has a rich history, much of which can be traced to the steady access to various kinds of vital transport.
Macon is approximately 80 miles south of Atlanta, near the geographical center of the state. By 1833, cotton was already the mainstay of the local economy, with cotton from other outlying areas passing through Macon to be poled down the then-navigable Ocmulgee River on shallow boats and barges to Darien. So much of the local water resources were used for agricultural resources that the runoff of rainwater stopped reaching the Ocmulgee, rendering it narrow and more shallow and no longer navigable.
By the 1840s, a group of Macon entrepreneurs began to look for an alternative means of form of transport to serve the area. By 1860, Macon had become the center of intrastate transport on Georgia’s fourteen hundred miles of track. Atlanta, however, would always be Georgia’s main connection point for transporting freight and passengers between states. Manufacturing began to develop in Macon, beginning with several foundries and brickyards, and a cotton mill. Macon was the state’s fifth largest city, with a population of just over eight thousand in the city and a total of about twice that many in the county.
The Civil War brought more emotional conflict to the area than actual warfare. Many of the city’s most prominent citizens were sympathetic to the Union cause, but their financial interests were strongly tied to geography. They, for the most part, remained in Macon and tended their commercial interests and many of them chose loyalty to place over loyalty to ideas. The only skirmish in the immediate area was an unsuccessful Union attempt in 1864 to liberate the imprisoned officers. It happened at the same time as Sherman was burning Atlanta. The results were very different, though. Only one stray cannonball landed inside the city limits and it did only property damage. Today, the house that was struck by the cannonball is the city’s main museum devoted to the Civil War era.
Even as trains were supplanted by the development of the Interstate Highway System, Macon managed to maintain its important role in commercial freight and transit, when, in the 1960s, the city became the site of the junction of Interstate Highways 75 and 16. This trend continued in the 1990s, with the development of the Fall Line Freeway through Macon.
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Fun Facts
Population inside the city limits: 97,255, according to the 2000 census
Elevation: 381 feet above sea level
Area inside city limits: 56.3 square miles
Form of government: strong-mayor government with a fifteen member legislative council
Average daily temperature in January: 45.5 degrees F
Average daily temperature in July: 81.1 degrees F
Bibb County, Georgia: area -- 250 square miles, population -- 153,887 according to the 2000 census, form of government – five member commission with a full-time commission chair elected at large