Clarke County was created from a part of Jackson County in 1801. It was named for Revolutionary War General Elijah Clarke. Clarke County has two incorporated municipalities, Winterville and Athens, the county seat. Athens grew up around The University of Georgia, the nation's oldest land grant university.
Athens-Clarke County is one of three consolidated governments in Georgia.
Athens' City Hall is the location of one of the more curious artifacts of the Civil War, a double-barreled cannon. The cannon was designed to fire two cannon balls connected by a chain. Since firing the two cannons simultaneously defied current technology, it was never used after a nearly catastrophic demonstration.
Clarke County is home to a tree that owns itself. Colonel William H. Jackson, a professor at UGA, owned the land on which a large oak tree stood. He willed the tree the eight feet of land around its trunk. The original "Tree That Owns Itself" blew down in 1942. The Junior Ladies' Garden Club planted a sapling from one of the tree's acorns, and it is still standing today.
Athens-Clarke County was the site of the rhythmic gymnastics, soccer and volleyball in the 1996 Olympics.
Encompassing 313 acres, and located in Clarke County, the State Botanical Garden is a horticultural preserve set aside for the study and enjoyment of plants and nature. Also in Athens is the Georgia Museum of Art, established in 1945. The permanent collection has more than 7,000 works of art.
Many notable people are associated with Clarke County, including Henry Woodfin Grady, a journalist and spokesman for the "New South" following the Civil War. Dr. William Lorenzo Moss taught at both Harvard and Yale Universities before coming to the University of Georgia's School of Public Health Medicine. He developed the Moss System of classifying blood. Joseph Henry Lumpkin was the first Chief Justice of the state, and Ben T. Epps was Georgia's pioneer aviator. He designed, built, and flew the first plane in Georgia and then ran a flying service from 1917 to 1937.
