Powder Springs, Georgia

Powder Springs is a city in Cobb County, Georgia, United States. The population was 13,940 at the 2010 census, with an estimated population for 2015 of 14,826.In 2015 the city elected its first black mayor, Al Thurman. He was the first African American to be elected as mayor in Cobb County, but was one of several elected in small towns in Georgia in 2015.HistoryThe town of Powder Springs was incorporated as Springville in 1838 in the lands of two Cherokee Indian leaders. Gold had been discovered in Georgia ten years earlier, and the first European-American settlers came to find gold. The settlers found little gold in the mines at Lost Mountain and off Brownsville Road. It was at about this time that the Cherokee people were forced off their land and removed to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River on the Trail of Tears.Springville was renamed as Powder Springs in 1859. The name was derived from the seven springs in the city limits. The water in these springs contains some 26 minerals that turn the surrounding sand black like gunpowder – hence the earlier name of Gunpowder Springs.Civil War history includes a skirmish at Lattermore's Mills on June 20, 1864, that was a part of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain and General Sherman's Atlanta Campaign. Many slaves escaped the plantations in this area to join Sherman's forces and gain freedom.