History

History January 16, 2026

How Veterans Memorial Highway got its start

[This article is part of an ongoing project of resurrecting evergreen articles from the Cobb County Courier’s stacks, and expanding them with newly discovered information] By Larry Felton Johnson A…

Photo from 1914 newspaper with group of Atlanta boosters meeting in Chattanooga about Dixie Highway project

History January 15, 2026

The automobile in Cobb County: The history of the Dixie Highway

By Larry Felton Johnson [This an evergreen article that we periodically republish as our readership grows, with added materials from the Georgia Historic Newspapers database and website housed at the…

An Norfolk Southern engine pulling a long line of boxcar, tankers and other cars starting through a crossing in downtown Austell GA

History January 12, 2026

The incorporation of Austell, Georgia in September 1885

With the incorporation of the City of Mableton as the now-largest city in the county, we’ve decided to revisit our series “Cobb County history through documents.” This is an evergreen…

Acworth December 3, 2025

In 1906, an Acworth dairy farm had most productive cow in U.S.

By Larry Felton Johnson Even if I weren’t periodically using newspapers from past decades and centuries to put together articles on the history of Cobb County, I’d browse the Georgia…

Road sign at South Cobb Drive near Cooper Lake Road in article about South Cobb Drive overnight lane closures (photo by Larry Johnson, Cobb County Courier, CC 4.0)

History November 29, 2025

How did South Cobb Drive begin? Bell Bomber and the speedy wartime construction of a highway

[This is an evergreen article that we periodically expand and republish] South Cobb Drive has been a major commercial and commuter highway in Cobb County since the mid-1940s. In fact,…

Mableton November 27, 2025

More Cobb History: Bandits captured outside Mableton in 1914 car chase

In 1914 a newspaper called the Atlanta Georgian was owned by William Randolph Hearst. Like most Hearst newspapers, the Georgian placed a high emphasis on sensationalism. Crime and scandal were…

Acworth November 27, 2025

Acworth’s early 20th Century Anti-Saloon League

By Larry Felton Johnson Unless you were an organized crime figure, the attempt at imposing prohibition on a national scale in the early 20th century was a dismal failure. If…

Drawing of an entrance to a gold mine with a track and a cart full of ore

History November 24, 2025

Nuggets from history: attempts at gold mining in Cobb County

By Larry Felton Johnson Hope springs eternal in the rush for fabulous riches, and that was no less true in the 19th and early 20th centuries than it is today….

Pencil drawing of a 19th or early 20th-Century street car on rails

Acworth November 18, 2025

Snippets from Acworth history: electricity and gold mining

The Courier makes frequent use of the Georgia Historic Newspaper database housed at the University of Georgia for articles on local history. In browsing around this morning, I decided to…

History November 18, 2025

Slavery’s brutal reality shocked Northerners before the Civil War − and is being whitewashed today by the White House

by Gerry Lanosga, Indiana University, [This article first appeared in The Conversation, republished with permission] Long before the first shots were fired in the Civil War, beginning early in the…

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Puzzles Games and Quizzes May 9, 2026

Cobb County’s alphabet soup: take the quiz on important acronyms in our county

By Larry Felton Johnson Of the evergreen quizzes that we post periodically about Cobb County this one has drawn the most traffic. I’m not sure exactly why, but I don’t…

Opinion May 9, 2026

We Do A Lot For Mom But We Should Do More For Mothers

By John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College Americans spend quite a lot on Mom for Mother’s Day. But as a country, we could be doing a lot…

News, Transportation May 9, 2026

This week’s schedule of lane closures for the ongoing $1.2 billion I-285 and I-20 West Interchange project in Cobb and Fulton

NOTE: The full closure of north and southbound lanes of I-285 between Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Cascade Road previously announced for this weekend has been postponed due to…

News, Transportation May 9, 2026

Full lane closures on I-285 postponed due to weather reports

The Georgia Department of Transportation announced that the scheduled full closure of north and southbound lanes of I-285 between Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Cascade Road has been postponed…

Weather May 9, 2026

Cobb climate summary & weather forecast for Saturday, May 9, 2026

The National Weather Service forecasts mostly cloudy skies here in Cobb County on Saturday, May 9, 2026, with a high near 77 degrees. The National Weather Service has issued a…