Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Blakely Blakely, GA

Blakely is a city in southwest Georgia and the county seat of Early County, located on U.S. Route 27 about halfway between Columbus, Georgia, and Tallahassee, Florida.

Blakely was platted in 1825 as the seat of Early County and was named for Johnston Blakeley, an Irish-born U.S. Navy officer and hero of the War of 1812, though the town was not incorporated until 1870.

Cotton dominated Blakely's economy before the Civil War, but peanuts took over afterward, and Early County now produces more peanuts than any other county in the nation.

Because of that peanut production, Blakely is nicknamed the "Peanut Capital of the World."

Just north of Blakely, Kolomoki Mounds State Historic Park preserves a major Woodland-period earthwork complex built between about 350 and 650 CE; it is the largest mound complex in Georgia and one of the largest in the United States.

The Early County Courthouse on Blakely's Court Square was built in 1905 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The 2020 census counted 5,371 residents in Blakely, down from the city's peak of 5,696 people recorded in 2000, when the city had 2,060 households.

Blakely was home to a Peanut Corporation of America processing plant that was shut down during the nationwide salmonella outbreak investigation of 2008–2009, one of the largest food recalls in U.S. history.

The Early County News, Blakely's local newspaper, was founded by the Fleming family in 1859 and is still published in the city.

All of the Early County School System's schools — its elementary, middle, and high schools — are located in Blakely, making the city the educational center of the county.