Social Circle, Georgia

The story most people tell about this town's name goes like this: a traveler passing through in the early eighteen twenties was so struck by the warmth and hospitality of a small group of settlers gathered under an oak tree that he remarked, this sure is a social circle. Whether or not those were the exact words, the name stuck. The town was founded in eighteen twenty when men who had won land in the Georgia lottery began settling Walton County, and the community that formed around them was known for its neighborliness.

Social Circle sits mostly in Walton County and extends into Newton County. It remains a small city of a few thousand residents about forty-five miles east of Atlanta, carrying the most cheerful name in Georgia.