Bibb County is located in central Georgia and is part of the Macon, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA.) It is named after William Wyatt Bibb (1781 -1820.) Its county seat is Macon.
Bibb County contains one of the most important and largest archaeological zones in the United States, the Ocmulgee Bottoms. It is one to two miles (1.6-3.2 km) wide and approximately 12 miles (19.2 km) wide. The Ocmulgee Bottoms was the location of one of the earliest centers of advanced Native American culture north of Mexico and the traditional location where the Creek Indian Confederacy was born. Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon contains the core cluster of ruins and village of the Ocmulgee Bottoms. The site of Fort Hawkins, the center of Federal government activities in the Southeast during the early 1800s, is also located in Macon.
Bibb County is bounded on the northeast by Jones County and the northwest by Monroe County. To the south is Houston County. It is bordered by Peach County to the south-southwest and Crawford County on the southwest side. Twiggs County is located to the east of Bibb.
William W. Bibb was born in Amelia County, VA. While a child, his family moved to Elbert County, GA along with many other Virginians. Elbert is located in the northeastern part of that state. He attended William & Mary College, and then the University of Pennsylvania, where he was awarded a doctorate in medicine. He returned to Elbert County in 1801 and briefly practiced medicine in the booming town of Petersburg, located at the confluence of the Savannah and Broad Rivers. Petersburg (now under Lake Russell) was located over the ruins of a large Muskogean town that had been visited by William Bartram in 1773. Many mounds were leveled to build the town, including a large spiral mound like the one that still exists near Macon in the Ocmulgee National Monument.
Bibb was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1803 and served four terms. In 1813 he was elected to the U.S. Senate to complete a term of a senator who had resigned and served until 1816. While in Congress Bibb was an enthusiastic supporter of the efforts to remove the Creek Indians from Georgia and Alabama. He was appointed governor of the Territory of Alabama in 1816 as a reward for his support of the planter faction that desired Creeks lands for large scale cotton cultivation. In 1819 he was elected the first governor of Alabama in 1819. He died in office on July 20, 1820 from injuries in a horse-riding accident.
Geology and hydrology
Bibb County is located in the Piedmont, Sand Hills and Atlantic Coastal Plain geological regions. The northwest and north central portion of the county is in the Piedmont. The Sand Hills forms a band that crosses the county from west to east. The remainder of the county is in the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Along the Ocmulgee River the transition from igneous-metamorphic to sedimentary rocks is marked by drops in elevation, along with accompanying shoals and waterfalls. The transition zone is known in Georgia as the Fall Line.
The Lower Piedmont is characterized by underlying rock strata of igneous and metamorphicized igneous rock. The terrain consists of rolling hills and stream valleys. Seasonal or permanent wetlands parallel many of its streams. These are relatively narrow bands of soggy terrain that provide ecological diversity for animal and plant life. The top soils are thin over most hills and steep slopes, while much deeper near streams. Short-sighted cultivation techniques in the 19th and early 20th century caused much of the best top soil to be eroded; thus exposing red clay sub-soil. Sandy loam can still be found near streams.
The Macon Plateau is composed of a series of terraces overlooking the Ocmulgee River and Ocmulgee Bottoms that are a southern extension of the Piedmont. These terraces range from 50 to 75 feet (15-23 m) above the typical level of the Ocmulgee River. Observers standing on top of several terraces can see long distances to the south.
The Fall Line marks the boundary between metamorphosed igneous rock strata and sedimentary rock strata in the Southeastern United States. It corresponds to ancient boundary between land and ocean.. The relatively sudden drop in elevation causes rocky shoals along rivers and streams, which during the 1800s were ideal locations for water-powered industries.
The Sand Hills are located immediately south of the Fall Line. They are the remnants of barrier islands and sand dunes from the Miocene Era or about 20 million years ago. Because rain water drains rapidly through the sandy soil, this region is especially vulnerable to droughts. Only certain types of pines thrived in these regions. To early European settlers they were known as “pine barrens” or “deserts.” They were not desirable locations for permanent Native American towns because the soil was unfertile and the game was less plentiful. The Sand Hills did make good locations for winter encampments because the sandy soil quickly drained away winter rains and tended to absorb solar heat quicker than woodsy loam.
The Atlantic Coastal Plain is characterized by underlying rock strata that are relatively young sedimentary rock from the Late Cretaceous Period, when the shore of the Atlantic Ocean ran through present day Bibb County. Here the terrain is much more moderate than in the Piedmont, varying from gently rolling hills to flat bottomlands. The Ocmulgee Bottoms composes a large alluvial flood plain where the Ocmulgee River meanders through swamps and seasonal wetlands.
Bibb’s largest stream is the Ocmulgee River, which flows through the center of the county. Major tributaries of the Ocmulgee include Tobesofkee, Colaparchee, Echeconee, Rocky, Beaverdam, Stoney and Walnut Creeks. Tobesofkee, Echeconnee and Walnut Creeks were sufficiently deep to provide corridors for a Native American canoe transportation network in pre-European times.
The Ocmulgee River joins the Oconee River in southern Georgia to become the Altamaha River, which eventually reaches the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Ocmulgee’s route along the edge of Bibb County is characterized by shoals. It is only navigable for canoes, kayaks and small row boats.
Ocmulgee is the Anglicization of the Georgia Muskogee-Creek tribal name, Oka-mole-ke, which means “Swirling Water People.” Georgia Muskogee was a mixture of the dominant Creek language, Itsate (Hitchiti) with the dialect of Muskogee spoken along the Tallapoosa River in Alabama.
Tobesofkee is the Anglicization of the Georgia Muskogee-Creek word, topah-sofkee, which means “hospitality shed,” but literally means “serving board-grits.” The topah-sofkee was a building in any Creek town or village of significant size that provided free, warm meals, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to any traveler, hunter or hungry person.
Echeconnee is the Anglicization of the Itsate-Creek word, eco-kvnhe, meaning Deer Mound. The Muskogean “v” sound is pronounced like “aw” in paw, but was often interpreted by European speakers as an “o” sound.
Colaparchee probably is derived from the Georgia Muskogee-Creek word kolepah-che, which means “to have fireflies.” There is no “r” sound in Oklahama Muskogee, so perhaps the original word was Itsate-Creek and pronounced koleparchee. The Itsate Creeks did pronounce “r” sounds.
Native American occupation
In the past, Bibb County Native American populations were apparently concentrated along the Ocmulgee River Flood Plain, plus the larger creeks that flow into the Ocmulgee. There is evidence that the complex system of meandering streams, permanent swamps and seasonal wetlands in the Ocmulgee Bottoms, now known as the Bond Swamp National Wildlife Management Area were the locations of some the earliest experiments in agriculture in the United States.
The region around Bibb County was occupied by ancestors of the Creek Indians, when first visited by English traders in the late 1600s. However, linguistic evidence provided by the chronicles of the Hernando de Soto Expedition, when it passed through the region in spring of 1540, suggests that the members of the original Creek Confederacy included provinces from several ethnic groups, not just Muskogee-Creeks.
Maps of that era show the Ocmulgee – Creeks living around Indian Springs and the Upper Ocmulgee River, while the area around Ocmulgee National Monument in Macon is labeled “Ochesee” by the early maps of the Colony of Carolina. The Ocmulgee Creeks abandoned the Upper Ocmulgee River during the Yamasee War (1715-1717) and relocated to the Lower Chattahoochee River. Some of the Ocmulgee returned to the upper Ocmulgee River Basin after friendly relations were established with the new Colony of Georgia in 1732.
Throughout the 1700s and early 1800s, the Creek Indians were by far the largest tribe north of Mexico. However during the 1800s, they were repeatedly subdivided, assimilated, killed in battle or intentionally starved to death in concentration camps. Although they take a much lower profile than Cherokee descendants, there probably still many more people in the United States carrying at least some Muskogean DNA than any other tribe. However, the federally recognized Muscogee – Creek Nation of Oklahoma is only the fourth largest federally recognized tribe, behind the Navajo, Oklahoma Cherokees and Oklahoma Choctaws.
Native American Cultural Periods
Earliest Inhabitants
Archaeologists believe that humans have lived in Bibb County for at least 12,000 years, perhaps much longer. Clovis and Folsom points, associated with Late Ice age big game hunters have been found in the Ocmulgee River Valley. During the Ice Age, herds of giant mammals roamed the river bottom lands. The mastodons, saber tooth tigers, giant sloths and other massive mammals died out about 8,000 years ago. The ethnic identity of the Clovis Culture hunters is not known. They were long presumed to be American Indians, but recent research by anthropologists have revealed many similarities with the big game hunters of Western Europe. An ice cap on the North Atlantic Ocean may have permitted early humans to move back and forth between continents by paddling, while gaining sustenance from hunting sea mammals and fishing.
Archaic Period (8,000 BC – 1000 BC)
After the climate warmed, animals and plants typical of today soon predominated in this region. Humans adapted to the changes and gradually became more sophisticated. They adopted seasonal migratory patterns that maximized access to food resources. Archaic hunters probably moved to locations along major rivers during the winter, where they could eat fish and fresh water mussels, if game was not plentiful. During the remainder of the year, smaller streams would have been desirable camp sites.
Bibb County was an ideal location for bands of hunters and gatherers. The county’s network of creeks and wetlands provided a diverse ecological environment for game animals and edible plants. Native Americans learned to set massive brush fires in the late autumn which cleared the landscape of shrubs and created natural pastures for deer, bison and elk. The Georgia Piedmont had numerous Woodland bison until they were killed off by British settlers in the mid-1700s. The landscape that European settlers encountered in the Piedmont and Coast