Macon, Georgia


Macon, officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in Georgia, United States. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River in Central Georgia, it is southeast of Atlanta and northwest of Savannah. Macon's population was 157,346 in the 2020 census. It is the principal city of the Macon metropolitan area, which had 234,802 people in 2020.
Macon was settled in the early 19th century. Voters approved the consolidation of the city of Macon and Bibb County governments in a 2012 referendum. Macon became the state's fourth-largest city when the merger became official on January 1, 2014.
Macon has several notable cultural sites, including Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, the Tubman Museum, and Hay House, and is known for the International Cherry Blossom Festival. The city is also known for its deep musical heritage and vibrant festivals that celebrate its Southern and African American roots. Higher education plays a major role through Mercer University, Middle Georgia State University, and Wesleyan College. Macon is served by I-16, I-75, and I-475. The area has two small general-aviation airports, Middle Georgia Regional Airport and Herbert Smart Downtown Airport.

History

Macon was founded on the site of the Ocmulgee Old Fields, where the Creek Indians lived in the 18th century. Their predecessors, the Mississippian culture, built a powerful agriculture-based chiefdom. The Mississippian culture constructed earthwork mounds for ceremonial, religious, and burial purposes. Indigenous peoples inhabited the areas along the Southeast's rivers for 13,000 years before Europeans arrived.
Macon was developed at the site of Fort Benjamin Hawkins, built in 1809 at President Thomas Jefferson's direction after he forced the Creek to cede their lands east of the Ocmulgee River. The fort was named for Benjamin Hawkins, who served as superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Southeast territory south of the Ohio River for more than 20 years, had lived among the Creek, and was married to a Creek woman. Located at the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, the fort established a trading post with native peoples at the river's most inland point navigable from the Low Country.
Fort Hawkins guarded the Lower Creek Pathway, an extensive and well-traveled American Indian network that the U.S. government later improved as the Federal Road, linking Washington, DC, to the ports of Mobile, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Used for trading with the Creek, the fort also was used by state militia and federal troops. It was a major military distribution point during the War of 1812 and the Creek War of 1813. After the wars, it was a trading post and garrisoned troops until 1821. Decommissioned around 1828, it later burned to the ground. A replica of the southeast blockhouse, built in 1938, stands on an east Macon hill. Fort Hawkins Grammar School occupied part of the site. In the 21st century, archeological excavations have revealed more of the fort, increasing its historical significance, and led to further reconstruction planning for this major historical site.
With the arrival of more settlers, Fort Hawkins was renamed "Newtown". After Bibb County's organization in 1822, the city was chartered as the county seat in 1823 and officially named Macon, in honor of Nathaniel Macon, a statesman from North Carolina, from where many early Georgia residents hailed. City planners envisioned "a city within a park" and created a city of spacious streets and landscapes. Over were dedicated for Central City Park, and ordinances required residents to plant shade trees in their front yards.
Because of the beneficial local Black Belt geology and the availability of slave labor, cotton became the mainstay of Macon's early economy. The city's location on the Ocmulgee River aided initial economic expansion, providing shipping access to new markets. Cotton steamboats, stagecoaches, and the 1843 arrival of the railroad increased marketing opportunities and contributed to Macon's economic prosperity.
Macon's growth had other benefits. In 1836, the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church chose Macon as the location for Wesleyan College, the first U.S. college to grant women college degrees. Nonetheless, Macon came in last in the 1855 referendum voting to be Georgia's capital city with 3,802 votes.
During the American Civil War, Macon served as the official arsenal of the Confederacy manufacturing percussion caps, friction primers, and pressed bullets. Camp Oglethorpe was established as a prison for captured Union officers and enlisted men. Later, it held only officers, at one time numbering 2,300. The camp was evacuated in 1864.
Macon City Hall served as the temporary state capitol in 1864 and was converted to a hospital for wounded Confederate soldiers. Union General William Tecumseh Sherman spared Macon on his march to the sea. His troops sacked the nearby state capital of Milledgeville, and Maconites prepared for an attack. Sherman, however, passed by without entering Macon.
The Macon Telegraph reported the city had furnished 23 companies of men for the Confederacy, but casualties were high. By the war's end, Maconite survivors fit for duty could fill only five companies.
The city was taken by Union forces during Wilson's Raid on April 20, 1865.
Because of its central location, Macon developed as a state transportation hub. In 1895, The New York Times dubbed Macon "The Central City" because of its emergence as a railroad transportation and textile factory hub. Terminal Station was built in 1916. In the 20th century, Macon grew into a prospering town in Middle Georgia.
Macon has been impacted by natural catastrophes. In 1994, Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in Florida and flooded several Georgia cities. Macon, which received of rain, suffered major flooding.
On May 11, 2008, an EF2 tornado hit Macon. Touching down in nearby Lizella, the tornado moved along the southern shore of Lake Tobesofkee, continued into Macon, and lifted in Twiggs County. The storm's total path length was, and its path width was. The tornado produced sporadic areas of major damage, with widespread straight-line wind damage to the south of its path. The most significant damage was along Eisenhower Parkway and Pio Nono Avenue in Macon, where two businesses were destroyed and several others were heavily damaged. The tornado also impacted Macon State College, where almost 50% of the campus's trees were snapped or uprooted and several buildings were damaged, with the gymnasium. The tornado's intensity varied from EF0 to EF2, with the EF2 damage and winds up to occurring near the intersection of Eisenhower Parkway and Pio Nono Avenue.

Consolidation

On July 31, 2012, voters in Macon and Bibb County passed a referendum to merge the governments of the city of Macon and most of unincorporated Bibb County. The vote came after the Georgia General Assembly passed House Bill 1171, authorizing the referendum earlier in the year; Four previous consolidation attempts failed.
As a result of the referendum, the Macon and Bibb County governments were replaced with a mayor and a nine-member county commission elected by districts, and a portion of Macon extending into nearby Jones County was disincorporated. Robert Reichert was elected the first mayor of Macon-Bibb in the September 2013 election, which required a runoff with C. Jack Ellis in October.

Geography

The Ocmulgee River is a major river that runs through the city. Macon is one of Georgia's three major Fall Line cities, along with Augusta and Columbus. The Fall Line is where the hills of the Piedmont plateau meet the flat terrain of the coastal plain. As such, Macon has a varied landscape of rolling hills on the north side and flat plains on the south. The fall line, where the elevation drops noticeably, causes rivers and creeks in the area to flow rapidly toward the ocean. In the past, Macon and other Fall Line cities had many textile mills powered by the rivers.
Macon is located at . According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, of which is covered by water. Macon is about above mean sea level.

Climate

Macon has a humid subtropical climate. The normal monthly mean temperatures range from in January to in July. On average, 1–3 days have + highs, and 83 days have + highs, and 41 days with a low at or below freezing; the average window for freezing temperatures is October 18 thru April 19, allowing a growing season of 182 days.
The city has an average annual precipitation of. The wettest day on record was July 5, 1994, with of rain, and the wettest month on record was July 1994, with of rain. Since 1892, though, when precipitation records for the city began, two months, October 1961 and October 1963, did not even record a trace of precipitation in the city, and two other months, October 1939 and May 2007, only recorded a trace. Snow is occasional, with about half of the winters receiving trace amounts or no snowfall, averaging ; the snowiest winter was 1972–73 with.

Surrounding cities and towns

Demographics

Macon is the largest principal city in the Macon-Warner Robins-Fort Valley CSA, a combined statistical area that includes the Macon metropolitan area and the Warner Robins metropolitan area with a combined population of 411,898 in the 2010 census.
Race / Ethnicity Pop 2000Pop 2010% 2000% 2010
White alone 34,05025,29656,78735.01%27.69%36.09%
Black or African American alone 60,50361,76885,23462.21%67.62%54.17%
Native American or Alaska Native alone 1771462810.18%0.16%0.18%
Asian alone 6086833,2090.63%0.75%2.04%
Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone 2728420.03%0.03%0.03%
Other race alone 60976020.06%0.11%0.38%
Mixed race or multiracial 6641,0694,4540.68%1.17%2.83%
Hispanic or Latino 1,1662,2646,7371.20%2.48%4.28%
Total97,25591,351157,346100.00%100.00%100.00%

As of the official 2010 U.S. census, the population of Macon was 91,351. In the last official census, in 2000, 97,255 people, 38,444 households, and 24,219 families were residing in the city. The population density was. The 44,341 housing units had an average density of. The racial makeup of the city was 67.94% African American, 28.56% White, 0.02% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.46% from other races, and 0.77% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 2.48% of the population. By the 2020 census, its population increased to 157,346.
Of the 38,444 households in 2000, 30.1% had children under 18 living with them, 33.0% were married couples living together, 25.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.0% were not families. About 31.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.1% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.08.
In the city, the age distribution was 26.9% under 18, 11.3% from 18 to 24, 27.5% from 25 to 44, 20.0% from 45 to 64, and 14.3% who were 65 or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 79.7 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 72.8 males.