Dade County, Georgia

Dade County, Georgia
Dade County Courthouse in Trenton
Location in the U.S. state of Georgia
Georgia's location in the U.S.
Founded	1837
Named for	Francis L. Dade
Seat	Trenton
Largest city	Trenton
Area
• Total	174 sq mi (451 km2)
• Land	174 sq mi (451 km2)
• Water	0.2 sq mi (1 km2), 0.1%
Population
• (2010)	16,633
• Density	96/sq mi (37/km²)
Congressional district	14th
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Website	www.dadecounty-ga.gov

Dade County is a county in the U.S. state of Georgia. It occupies the northwest corner of Georgia, and the county's own northwest corner is the westernmost point in the state. As of the 2010 census, the population is 16,633. The county seat and only incorporated municipality is Trenton.

Dade County is part of the Chattanooga, TN–GA Metropolitan Statistical Area.

In 1860, residents of Dade County voted to secede from the state of Georgia and from the United States, but no government outside the county ever recognized this gesture as legal. In 1945, the county symbolically "rejoined" Georgia and the United States. However, in 1999, it was left off the Georgia state quarter. This, however, was claimed to have been unintentional, and was later fixed.

Dade County was established in 1837 and was named for Major Francis Langhorne Dade, who was killed in the Dade Massacre by Seminole Indians in December 1835. The first settlers of Dade County won the land in the Georgia Land Lotteries, held to encourage settlement after the Cherokee people were forced off the land. Many settlers worked in regional coke and coal mines that contributed to development of the Chattanooga, Tennessee area.

The area was long isolated from the rest of Georgia by its geography of mountains and rivers, which some historians say contributed to early residents' separatist attitudes. Georgia did not have a road connecting Dade County to the rest of the state until the establishment of Cloudland Canyon State Park in 1939. That year Georgia began work on Highway 136 to connect U.S. 41 to the recently created park. The Civilian Conservation Corps built many of the facilities and access roads to the park. Up until then, travelers from elsewhere in Georgia could drive to the county only by way of Alabama or Tennessee.