Jarrell Plantation State Historic Site

Nestled in the red clay hills of Georgia, this cotton plantation was owned by a single family for more than 140 years. It survived General Sherman’s “March to the Sea,” typhoid fever, the cotton boll weevil, the advent of steam power, and a transition from farming to forestry.

In 1847, John Fitz Jarrell built a simple heart pine house typical of most plantations and made many of the furnishings visitors see today. By 1863, the 600-acre plantation was farmed by 42 enslaved African laborers. After the Civil War, John increased his land to nearly 1,000 acres farmed by former enslaved Africans. As John aged, most workers left and the slave houses deteriorated and disappeared.

Featured Birds

Brown-headed Nuthatch

Brown Thrasher

Northern Bobwhite

Red-headed Woodpecker

Yellow-breasted Chat

After John’s death, his son, Dick Jarrell, gave up teaching to return to the farm, and in 1895, he built a small house for his family that grew to 12 children. Dick diversified the farm, using steam engines to power a sawmill, cotton gin, gristmill, shingle mill, planer, sugar cane press and syrup evaporator. In 1974, his descendants donated these buildings to establish Jarrell Plantation State Historic Site.

Jarrell Plantation also maintains Griswoldville Battlefield, an unmanned 17 acre site where the Battle of Griswoldville happened on November 22, 1864.

Jarrell Plantation is part of a forest-management project to restore red-cockaded woodpecker habitat. Visitors may occasionally hear timber activity from a remote part of our property. Red-cockaded Woodpeckers can be seen at nearby Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge and are dependent on the Longleaf Pine-Wiregrass ecosystem and prescribed fire. Learn more.