Cherokee County, Georgia

Cherokee County is in the US state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census the population was 266,620. The county seat is Canton. The county Board of Commissioners is the governing body, with members elected to office. Cherokee County is included to be part of Metro Atlanta.

History

Original territory

thumb|An 1822 map of Cherokee lands in Georgia

Cherokee County was created by an act of the Georgia General Assembly on December 26, 1831, covering a vast area northwest of the Chattahoochee River and Chestatee River (except for Carroll County). It was named after the Cherokee people who lived in the area at that time.

The discovery of gold in local streams accelerated the push of European Americans to expel the Cherokee from their land.

In 1832, the State of Georgia implemented the Cherokee Land Lottery, which gave deeds of land that had previously belonged to the Cherokee people to white male citizens. The forcible removal of the Cherokee people to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River began during this year.

Partition

thumb|An 1834 map of counties created from Cherokee landThe General Assembly passed a law on December 3, 1832, which created the counties of Forsyth, Lumpkin, Union, Cobb, Gilmer, Murray, Cass (now Bartow), Floyd, and Paulding from area that had previously been part of Cherokee County.

Etowah was declared the county seat in 1833. Its name was later changed to Canton, which is still the county seat today.

In 1857, part of the southeastern corner of the county was ceded by the General Assembly to form Milton County (now the cities of Milton, Alpharetta, Roswell, and parts of Sandy Springs, within north Fulton County).

Development

In the 1890s, The Atlanta & Knoxville Railroad (later renamed the Marietta & North Georgia Railroad when it could not be completed to Knoxville) built a branch line through the middle of the county. When this line was bought by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in the following decade, the L&N Railroad built stations at Woodstock and Holly Springs.

Cherokee County began to see rapid population growth following the construction of Interstate 575, the first phase of which opened in 1979. The freeway bisects the county and serves as its primary thoroughfare, running from Kennesaw north through Woodstock, Holly Springs, Canton, and Ball Ground. Today, the county is most densely populated in its southern areas, which are closest to the City of Atlanta.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which are land and (2.9%) are covered by water. Much of the water is in Lake Allatoona in the southwest. The lake is fed by the Etowah and Little Rivers (the county's primary waterways), and other large streams such as Noonday Creek. Much of the northern part of the county begins to rise toward the foothills of the north Georgia mountains.

The vast majority of Cherokee County is located in the [Etowah River] sub-basin of the Coosa-Tallapoosa River Basin, with only a small northwesterly corner of the county located in the Coosawattee River sub-basin of the same basin.

Mountains

thumb|[[Pine Log Mountain (left) and Bear Mountain (right)]]

Nine summits are listed by the United States Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System as being in the county. From tallest to lowest, they are:

Bear Mountain –
Pine Log Mountain –
Oakey Mountain –
Dry Pond Mountain –
Hickory Log Mountain –
Polecat Mountain –
Byrd Mountain –
Garland Mountain –
Posey Mountain –

Adjacent counties

Pickens – north
Dawson – northeast
Forsyth – east
Fulton – southeast
Cobb – south
Bartow – west
Gordon – northwest

Government, politics, and policing

An exurban county of Metro Atlanta, Cherokee County strongly supports the Republican Party. Having consistently followed a Solid South voting pattern for the bulk of the late 19th century and again from the Great Depression through the civil rights movement, the most recent Democratic presidential candidate to win Cherokee County is Georgian Jimmy Carter, who carried it in both of his bids.

The county had voted Republican even during the Jim Crow era, voting Republican in 1900, 1908, 1920, and 1928. It voted for a third-party candidate in 1912 and 1968.

In addition, it has not voted Democratic at the state level since the 1994 elections, when it supported Democratic candidates for Secretary of State and Agriculture Commissioner.

The GOP margin of victory has decreased in recent presidential cycles as population growth has led Metro Atlanta and, in turn, the state as a whole to shift politically leftward. The county remains a Republican stronghold, but less than it used to be. In 2024, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris won 30% of the vote in the county, the highest percentage since 1980.

For state politics, Cherokee County is part of districts 44, 46 and 47 for elections to the Georgia House of Representatives and districts 21, 32 and 56 for the Georgia State Senate.

Government

The five-member board of commissioners is elected from four districts, with an at-large county commission chair. Thus, members are elected as residents of geographic districts, but the commission chair must receive the majority vote of the county in total. Each is elected to a four-year term.

Cherokee County Sheriff's Office and city police agencies

The county is under the jurisdiction of the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, which is currently headed by Sheriff Frank Reynolds. Unlike some other metro Atlanta counties in Georgia, the Cherokee Sheriff's Office is a full-service Sheriff's Office meaning they manage the Adult Detention Center (jail), and handle law enforcement for unincorporated areas of Cherokee County. The incorporated cities within Cherokee County, Woodstock, Canton, Holly Springs, and Ball Ground, have independent municipal police departments.

Cherokee County Marshal's Office

Originally formed by the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners as the Cherokee County Police, the Marshal's office is composed of Sworn Deputies and civilian Animal Control Officers. The Deputies primarily handle code enforcement (in unincorporated areas), commercial vehicle traffic enforcement, park ordinance enforcement, business and liquor licenses, Cherokee Probation arrests and transports, as well as enforcing State Laws (including traffic laws) and assisting the Sheriff's Office and City Police. The civilian Animal Control Officers enforce all animal related ordinances within the county, including cities.

Politics

As of 2021, all state, county, and municipal elected officials representing Cherokee County are members of the Republican Party, with the exception of officials who hold officially non-partisan offices.

Cherokee County had voting patterns similar to most Solid South and Georgia counties prior to 1964 in presidential elections, though Democratic Party candidates did not win by as wide margins as they did in the rest of the state and the Deep South. In fact, the county backed Republican candidates four times between 1900 and 1960. From 1964 onward, the county has swung strongly toward the Republicans, only failing to vote for the Republican in presidential elections since then in 1968 when segregationist George Wallace appealed to anti-Civil Rights Act sentiment and in the two times Georgian Jimmy Carter was on the ballot in 1976 and 1980. In addition, unlike the inner suburban counties of the Atlanta metropolitan area, Cherokee County has continued to vote for Republicans by landslide margins, although the margins have decreased slightly in the most recent elections with the growth of the metropolitan area. In 2020, the majority of votes from all of the 42 county election precincts were cast for incumbent President Donald Trump.