Warm Springs

History

Warm Springs, originally named "Bullochville" (after the Bulloch family, which began after Stephen Bullock moved to Meriwether County in 1806 from Edgecombe County, North Carolina), first came to prominence in the 19th century as a spa town, because of its mineral springs which flow constantly at nearly . Residents of Georgia, particularly Savannah, began spending vacations at Bullochville in the late 18th century as a way to escape yellow fever, finding the number of warm springs in the vicinity of Bullochville very attractive. In the late 19th century traveling to the warm springs was a way to escape the city (in this case Atlanta) for a short while. Traveling by railroad to Durand, visitors would then go to Bullochville, away. One of the places benefiting from this was the Meriwether Inn. Once the automobile became popular in the early 20th century, tourists began going elsewhere, leading to the decline of the inn. In 1921, future president Franklin Roosevelt contracted a paralytic illness, diagnosed at the time as poliomyelitis (later thought in a 2003 peer-reviewed retrospective study to be Guillain–Barré syndrome). He tried to regain strength in his legs by bathing and exercising in the warm water. His first time in Warm Springs was October 1924. He went to a resort in the town whose attraction was a permanent natural spring. He was a constant visitor for two decades, and renamed the town from Bullochville to Warm Springs. Roosevelt had a cottage built in 1932 that became famous as the Little White House, where he vacationed while president, because of his illness. He died there in 1945, and the home is now a public museum. The town is still home to the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation (Roosevelt's former polio hospital), which remains a…

Geography

Warm Springs is located in southern Meriwether County at (32.888689, −84.680089). It is bordered to the south by Talbot County and to the west by F. D. Roosevelt State Park, including the Little White House. Pine Mountain rises to an elevation of south of the city, about higher than the city center. U.S. Route 27 Alternate passes through the center of Warm Springs, leading north to Greenville, the Meriwether county seat, and southwest to Columbus. Georgia State Route 41 leads southeast to Manchester, the largest city in Meriwether County, while State Route 85 leads northeast to Woodbury. According to the United States Census Bureau, Warm Springs has a total area of , of which , or 2.21%, are water. Warm Springs Branch and Cold Branch drain the area around the city center, both flowing north to Cane Creek, an east-flowing tributary of the Flint River. The southern, rural part of the city on Pine Mountain drains east to Pigeon Creek, another tributary of the Flint.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  958
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  924
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  902
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  869
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  744
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  738
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  729
• Pine Warbler

  Setophaga pinus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  603

Largest nearby schools

• Mountain View Elementary School
  Elementary · Manchester · 756 students · 15.1:1 ratio
• Manchester High School
  High · Manchester · 403 students · 12.2:1 ratio
• Manchester Middle School
  Middle · Manchester · 313 students · 14.9:1 ratio
• Good Sheperd Therapeutic Center
  Other · Warm Springs · 2 students · 1:1 ratio

Most recent

• M 2.54 — 2022-09-12
  13 km NE of Jackson, Georgia