Q&A on the News

Q: Draketown has been in the news because of the recent neo-Nazi gathering there. Can you please tell me where Draketown got its name from?

— Sperry Wilder, Roswell

A: The unincorporated community, located about 50 miles west of Atlanta in Haralson County, was settled by copper miners from Ducktown, Tenn., around 100 years ago.

Draketown got its name from the word “drake,” which is a term for a male duck, according to a previous AJC story. Since the miners were all men — or “drakes,” considering the name of their hometown — the “miners adopted the name Draketown,” according to the Haralson County Historical Society website.

After last month’s neo-Nazi rally in Newnan, the AJC reported that members of the National Socialist Movement met up with about 20 people from the League of the South, a white nationalist group, at the Georgia Peach Oyster Bar in Draketown, and both groups began burning large swastikas and other Aryan symbols.

Q: The rest stop just north of Dublin on Interstate 16 southbound is closed. Is it being remodeled?

— Gary Owen, Stockbridge

A: The rest stop is being remodeled, Kyle Collins, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Transportation, told Q&A on the News. The DOT closed both Laurens County rest stops for updates and renovations last year, but a plumbing problem has kept the I-16 location closed for longer than planned, he said.

Collins said this week that he’s hopeful the rest stop will reopen within the next month, but there is no exact timeline.