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What's In A Name? | Butts County and Between
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Even if you live inside Atlanta city limits, you've probably heard some of the most unusual names outside of the metro area. Butts County is one such name that listeners like B.T. have been curious about for years.
Rickey Bevington reports the origins of Butts County and a town called Between.
Butts County, southeast of Atlanta, was established in 1825 and officially became a county on Christmas Eve.
It’s named for beloved war veteran Samuel Butts. His family was among the American colonies' earliest settlers, a patriotic spirit that Butts took into stride. During the Creek War (an Alabama/Georgia subset of the War of 1812), Butts joined his local company as a private before quickly being promoted to captain.
His peers praised his courageous acts and ability to act with "the coolest intrepidy" under fire. Even his final battle, an early morning ambush in January 1814, was a display of his signature valor. Captain Butts died from a gunshot wound inflicted during the Battle of Chillabee.
More than a decade later, the state honored him by creating of a new county in his name.
Butts County is now host to battles of a more supernatural kind. Fans of Netflix's Stranger Things might the county's lush woodlands as the location of the show’s fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana.
The county is also home to Indian Springs State Park. According to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, it’s one of the oldest state parks in the nation. It's known for the healing waters of its natural springs, which were collected by the Creek Indians who originally lived there. Today, visitors can sample those famous waters, which are still revered more than 200 years later.
Our next name is Between. It's the official name of a town that, as you might guess, is in-between several larger cities. It's almost perfectly sandwiched in the middle of Athens and Atlanta. On a smaller scale, it lies between the two largest cities in Walton county, Loganville and Monroe.
Click here to find more stories behind curious Atlanta names from our summer 2018 series "What's In A Name?" on 88.5 GPB Atlanta’s All Things Considered.
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