LATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS

The Butts County Historical Society would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to the more than 50 community members from youth to seniors who joined in for the dedication of the Bicentennial Witness Tree. This remarkable white oak — the 4th largest in Georgia — measures an incredible 115 feet from spread to spread and 19 feet around, standing as a living symbol of our shared history. This wonder of nature has witnessed many generations of Native Americans, eight generations of local families, the era when cotton was king in Butts County, and the transformative arrival of the railroad in 1882 that connected Jackson to Macon and Atlanta, with six trains a day strengthening our local economy. 

We are deeply grateful to our speakers — Frankie Willis (BCHS President), Paul Hemmann, Elaine Brown (BCHS Board Members), and Mayor Carlos Duffey.

We would especially like to thank Elaine Brown, Paul Hemmann, and Cheryl Hilderbrand for their dedicated research that helped tell the powerful story of this historic tree and our community. Mayor Duffey shared that this tree will forever represent strength, resilience, hope, love, and family in Butts County, and Paul Hemmann closed with a beautiful metaphor of the tree, reminding us, “From a tiny acorn a mighty oak grows.”