Macon, GA news and local guide

After President Thomas Jefferson forced the Creek to cede their land east of the Ocmulgee, Fort Benjamin Hawkins was built on the site in 1809. It was named for Benjamin Hawkins, superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southeast for more than 20 years, who had lived among the Creek and married a Creek woman. Standing at the fall line, the head of navigation from the coast, the fort was a trading post and guarded the Lower Creek Pathway, which the government later improved as the Federal Road to Mobile and New Orleans. It was a major supply point in the War of 1812 and the Creek War of 1813, was garrisoned until 1821, and later burned. A replica blockhouse built in 1938 stands on a hill in east Macon, and digs in the 21st century found evidence of two separate forts. As settlers arrived the place was called Newtown. Bibb County was organized in 1822, and in 1823 the town was chartered as the county seat and named Macon for Nathaniel Macon, a North Carolina statesman, since many early Georgians came from that state. Its planners envisioned "a city within a park." Sources Wikipedia: Macon, Georgia