Glynn County, Georgia

Glynn County is located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 84,499. The county seat is Brunswick. Glynn County is part of the Brunswick, Georgia Metropolitan Statistical Area.

History
Glynn County, one of the state's original eight counties created on February 5, 1777, was named after John Glynn, a member of the British House of Commons who defended the cause of the American Colonies before the American Revolution. The Battle of Bloody Marsh was fought in Glynn County. James Oglethorpe built Fort Frederica, which was used a base in the American Revolutionary War. Glynn Academy, established to educate boys, is the second oldest school in Georgia.

Glynn County includes the most prominent of the Sea Islands of Georgia, including Jekyll Island, St. Simons Island, and Sea Island. The Georgia poet Sidney Lanier immortalized the seacoast there in his poem, "The Marshes of Glynn", which begins:


 * Glooms of the live-oaks, beautiful-braided and woven
 * With intricate shades of the vines that myriad-cloven
 * Clamber the forks of the multiform boughs,--
 * Emerald twilights,--
 * Virginal shy lights,
 * Wrought of the leaves to allure to the whisper of vows,
 * When lovers pace timidly down through the green colonnades
 * Of the dim sweet woods, of the dear dark woods,
 * Of the heavenly woods and glades,
 * That run to the radiant marginal sand-beach within
 * The wide sea-marshes of Glynn;--

During World War II, Naval Air Station Glynco, named for the county, was a major base for training for blimps and anti-submarine warfare. The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) now uses a substantial part of the former NAS as its main campus.

Geography
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 585 sqmi, of which 420 sqmi is land and 165 sqmi (28.3%) is water.

The majority of Glynn County is located in the Cumberland-St. Simons sub-basin of the St. Marys- Satilla River basin. Most of the county's northern and northwestern border area is located in the Altamaha River sub-basin of the basin by the same name.

Major highways

 * (Interstate 95)
 * (unsigned designation for I-95)
 * (unsigned designation for I-95)
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Adjacent counties

 * McIntosh County - north
 * Camden County - southwest
 * Brantley County - west
 * Wayne County - northwest

City

 * Brunswick

Census-designated places

 * Country Club Estates
 * Dock Junction
 * Everett
 * Jekyll Island, Georgia (CDP)
 * St. Simons
 * Sterling

Unincorporated community

 * Altamaha Park
 * Anguilla
 * Jamaica
 * Jewtown
 * Zuta

Ghost towns

 * Belle Vista
 * Bladen
 * Thalmann

Demographics
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 84,499 people, 34,614 households, and 22,352 families residing in the county.

2015
In terms of European ancestry, 40.8% were English, 10.6% were "American", 10.2% were Irish, and 7.9% were German.

Education
Glynn County's public schools are operated by Glynn County School System.

Superfund sites
Glynn County is home to four Superfund sites. Those include the "LCP Chemicals Georgia" site, the "Brunswick Wood Preserving" site, the "Hercules 009 Landfill" site, and the "Terry Creek Dredge Spoil Areas/Hercules Outfall" site.

The Hanlin Group, Inc., which maintained a facility named "LCP Chemicals" in Glynn County just outside the corporate limits of Brunswick, was convicted of dumping 150 tons of mercury into Purvis Creek, a tributary of the Turtle River and surrounding tidal marshes between the mid-1980s and its closure in 1994. Three executives were sentenced to prison time over the incident.

The LCP facility had been declared a Superfund site when it closed in 1994. It had been under scrutiny by the EPA after Service biologists discovered mercury poisoning in endangered wood storks on St. Simons Island. Fish, shellfish, crabs, and shrimps taken in coastal waters, as well as other bird species, also contained the toxic metal. The Service traced the source of the contamination to the LCP plant and documented the extent of the damage to wildlife resources. Their effort resulted in the addition of Endangered Species Act charges to those that would be brought against Hanlin and its officers.

Crime
In 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation ranked the Brunswick metropolitan area (which includes the counties of Glynn, Brantley and McIntosh) as the 7th most dangerous metropolitan area in the state of Georgia.

On August 29, 2009, Glynn County resident Guy Heinze Jr. murdered eight members of his extended family including his father, Guy Heinze Sr. in the family's trailer located in New Hope Plantation Mobile Home Park near Brunswick. Two others were critically injured, with one dying later in a hospital in Savannah. Heinze Jr. avoided the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole on October 30, 2013.

Politics
Similar to Southeast Georgia, Glynn County is heavily Republican, having last voted Democratic in 1980, when the Democratic nominee was Georgia native Jimmy Carter.