State of Dade | Dade County, GA
Here is the legend in a nutshell, basic, unannotated and suitable for telling children or Yankees passing through, in the hope they will purchase a T-shirt:
Dade County, sick and tard of Georgia's shillyin' and shallyin' at the beginning of the Civil War, seceded individually from the Union in 1860, declaring its independence not only from the U.S. but from a state that couldn't make up its mind. Thus the feisty little county was a sovereign nation - the Independent State of Dade - for 85 years until, in a frenzy of patriotism toward the end of World War II, it rejoined the nation on July 4, 1945.
It's a nice story and it makes for a cute T-shirt. However, it has a flaw, common with legends: "It probably didn't happen," said Allen Townsend of Wildwood.
"I've been messing with this since I was about 14 years old and I don't believe it," she said. "I'm a history major and I've read too much."
