{"id":1624,"date":"2023-02-21T08:12:17","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T08:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/?p=1624"},"modified":"2026-08-07T18:59:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T18:59:38","slug":"dawson-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/dawson-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Dawson County, Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dawson County is a county in Georgia, United States, about 50 miles north of Atlanta along the
\nGA 400 corridor. It had a population of 26,798 at the 2020 census, an estimated 35,365 by 2025,
\nand covers 214 square miles (550 km2) centred near 34\u00b026\u2032N 84\u00b010\u2032W.<\/p>\n

Dawsonville is the county seat and the county’s only incorporated city; its postal code is 30534.
\nThe county holds 1 city and 7 unincorporated or private communities, and it runs on
\nEastern Time. Its FIPS code is 13085.<\/p>\n

Towns & Villages in Dawson County<\/h2>\n

Dawson County has 8 named places on record: 1 incorporated city and 7 unincorporated
\ncommunities or private developments with no local government of their own. CDP stands for census
\ndesignated place; Unincorp. covers crossroads and rural communities with no formal boundary.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Place<\/th>\nType<\/th>\nPop.<\/th>\nZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Dawsonville<\/td>\nCity · seat<\/td>\n3,720<\/td>\n30534<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Big Canoe<\/td>\nUnincorp.<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Amicalola<\/td>\nUnincorp.<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Juno<\/td>\nUnincorp.<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dougherty<\/td>\nUnincorp.<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Silver City<\/td>\nUnincorp.<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Barrettsville<\/td>\nUnincorp.<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Afton<\/td>\nUnincorp.<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n—<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Big Canoe is a gated mountain community that straddles the Dawson–Pickens county line, so
\nonly the portion inside Dawson County belongs to this list — its overall population of
\nabout 3,000 residents is split between the two counties. Silver City straddles the opposite
\nborder, between Dawson and Forsyth counties; its census figures are reported under Forsyth
\nCounty’s Silver City census county division, not Dawson’s. The old list on this page
\nalso carried Lumpkin as a Dawson County settlement — that is a wrong-county mix-up. Lumpkin
\nis the seat of Stewart County, more than 200 miles to the southwest, and has no connection to
\nDawson County beyond sharing a name with neighboring Lumpkin County.<\/p>\n

Geography<\/h2>\n

Dawson County sits in Georgia’s Northeast region, at the southern edge of the Blue Ridge
\nMountains where the Appalachians meet the Piedmont. Of its 214 square miles, 211 are land and 3.6
\nare water, about 1.7 percent. Amicalola Creek and its namesake falls drain the county’s
\nnorthern half; three small lakes at Big Canoe — Petit, Sconti and Disharoon — are the
\ncounty’s main bodies of standing water, with Lake Petit supplying the community’s
\ndrinking water.<\/p>\n

Fannin County lies to the north, Lumpkin County to the northeast, Hall County to the east,
\nForsyth County to the south, Cherokee County to the southwest, Pickens County to the west and
\nGilmer County to the northwest. Fannin
\nCounty<\/a>, Lumpkin County<\/a>, Hall County<\/a>, Forsyth County<\/a>, Pickens County<\/a> and Gilmer County<\/a> all have their own pages on
\nthis site; Cherokee County’s Georgia page is not yet live here.<\/p>\n

Demographics<\/h2>\n

Dawson County had a population of 26,798 at the 2020 census, and the latest Census Bureau
\nestimate puts the county near 35,365 residents — growth of about 32 percent in five years.
\nBetween 2021 and 2022 alone the county grew 5.8 percent, the fourth-fastest rate of any county in
\nthe nation that year. Dawsonville is by far the largest community, holding most of the
\ncounty’s in-town population; the rest live in unincorporated areas, which house 69.4
\npercent of all residents. Median household income runs about $92,991 (2024 ACS estimate),
\nnotably higher than Georgia’s statewide figure of $74,632 (2023 ACS). Population density
\nworks out to roughly 127 people per square mile of land at the 2020 count, rising toward 168 per
\nsquare mile at the 2025 estimate.<\/p>\n

Economy & Local Life<\/h2>\n

Retail trade employs the most workers in the county, about 1,973 people, followed by
\neducational services at 1,857 and manufacturing at 1,513. Amicalola Falls State Park, an 829-acre
\npark built around Georgia’s tallest waterfall, draws visitors from across the Southeast and
\nsupports lodging and food-service jobs at its lodge, restaurant and cabins; it also serves as the
\nsouthern gateway to the Appalachian Trail, with an 8.5-mile connector trail leading to the
\ntrail’s official start on Springer Mountain. Dawsonville’s racing heritage runs deep
\n— NASCAR Hall of Famer Bill Elliott and his son, 2020 Cup Series champion Chase Elliott, both
\ngrew up in the county, and locals trace their driving skills to Prohibition-era moonshine runners
\nwho used back roads like Georgia State Route 9, still known as Thunder Road, to reach Atlanta. The
\ncounty’s biggest annual event is the Mountain Moonshine Festival each October, which
\ncelebrates that bootlegging history with car shows and demonstrations in downtown
\nDawsonville.<\/p>\n

History<\/h2>\n

Georgia’s legislature created Dawson County on December 3, 1857, from parts of Gilmer and
\nLumpkin counties. It was named for William Crosby Dawson, a U.S. senator from Georgia.
\nDawsonville was founded the same year as the new county seat and was incorporated as a town in
\n1859, then as a city in 1952.<\/p>\n

During the Civil War, several Confederate units were raised in the county, including the 21st
\nand 22nd Georgia Infantry companies and two companies of Wright’s Legion; a Union company,
\nthe 1st Georgia Infantry Battalion, was also raised there. In the twentieth century the
\ncounty’s isolation and mountain roads made it a center of illegal whiskey production during
\nProhibition, a history residents still call the county the “Moonshine Capital of the
\nWorld” for. That bootlegging culture fed directly into stock car racing — many of the
\nsport’s early drivers, including Dawsonville’s own Gober Sosebee, learned to handle a
\ncar running liquor before NASCAR existed.<\/p>\n

Getting There<\/h2>\n

No interstate highway crosses Dawson County. U.S. Route 19 and State Routes 9, 52, 53, 136, 183
\nand 400 carry most of its traffic; GA 400 connects the county south to Atlanta’s northern
\nsuburbs.<\/p>\n