Editing Duluth, Georgia (section)

==History==
Duluth was originally [[Cherokee]] territory.<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.duluthga.net/about_duluth/history.php| title=History| publisher=City of Duluth| access-date=November 29, 2016| archive-date=February 7, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180207222205/http://www.duluthga.net/about_duluth/history.php| url-status=dead}}</ref> When Duluth was established in the early 19th century, it was primarily forested land occupied by tribespeople. An Indian trail, called [[Peachtree Street|Old Peachtree Road]] by the settlers, was extended through the area during the [[War of 1812]] to connect Fort Peachtree in present-day [[Atlanta]] with Fort Daniel near present-day [[Dacula, Georgia|Dacula]]. When Gwinnett County was established in 1818, white settlement of the area accelerated.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}

Cotton merchant Evan Howell constructed a road connecting his [[cotton gin]] at the [[Chattahoochee River]] with Old Peachtree Road, creating Howell's Cross Roads. The settlement later became known as "Howell's Crossing". Howell was the grandfather of Atlanta Mayor [[Evan Howell|Evan P. Howell]] and great-grandfather of ''[[Atlanta Constitution]]'' publisher [[Clark Howell]].{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}

===Railroad era and new name===
Howell's Crossing was renamed "Duluth" in 1871 after Congress funded a north–south railroad line into the community. It was named after the city of [[Duluth, Minnesota]]. The Midwestern city had gotten its own railroad connection not long before, which had prompted Rep. J. Proctor Knott, a [[Kentucky]] Democrat, to make a speech in Congress mocking the project as wasteful. That speech drew national attention. According to contemporary reports, Evan P. Howell himself jokingly suggested the name change in a speech about the arrival of railroad service in the Georgia town. (Duluth, Minnesota, is named for [[Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut]] (1636–1710), a French captain and explorer of the upper Midwest, who negotiated peace between the [[Ojibwe|Chippewa]] and the [[Sioux]] nation.)<ref>{{cite book | url=http://www.kenkrakow.com/gpn/d.pdf | title=Georgia Place-Names: Their History and Origins | publisher=Winship Press | author=Krakow, Kenneth K. | year=1975 | location=Macon, GA | pages=66 | isbn=0-915430-00-2}}</ref>

The railroad encouraged the growth of Duluth's economy. A schoolhouse was built in 1871 on the site of what is now Coleman Middle School (formerly Duluth Middle School and Duluth Elementary School). The first [[Methodist]] church was organized in 1871, and the first [[Baptist]] congregation formed in 1886. Both churches continue today at new locations along State Route 120. The Bank of Duluth was charted in 1904, followed by the Farmers and Merchants Bank in 1911. Neither survived the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]].{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}

In 1922, Duluth elected Georgia's first female mayor, [[Alice Harrell Strickland]].<ref>{{Cite web| title = Duluth Historical Society, Duluth, GA – The Strickland House| url = http://duluthhistorical.org/stricklandhouse.html| website = duluthhistorical.org| access-date = 2015-08-18| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130615194903/http://duluthhistorical.org/stricklandhouse.html| archive-date = 2013-06-15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| title = Former Mayors| url = http://www.duluthga.net/about_duluth/former_mayors.php| publisher=City of Duluth | access-date = November 29, 2016}}</ref> She donated {{convert|1|acre|m2|adj=on}} of land for a "community forest" and began efforts to conserve land for public recreation.

===Post-war and modern era===
Duluth grew rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s, along with the rest of Gwinnett County. Georgia Governor [[George Busbee]] became a resident of Duluth in 1983 after leaving office, moving to the Sweet Bottom Plantation subdivision developed by Scott Hudgens. A major revitalization of the Duluth downtown area was undertaken in the early 21st century. Development along Sugarloaf Parkway has continued with the construction of the Gwinnett Arena near the Gwinnett Convention Center.

In much of the 20th century, when Gwinnett County was still rural, Duluth was known in the area as being one of the few small towns with its own hospital, Joan Glancy Memorial Hospital. Consequently, many older residents of the area who call other towns home were actually born in Duluth. Joan Glancy was replaced with [[Gwinnett Medical Center]] – Duluth in 2006. The site of the old Joan Glancy hospital is now GMC's Glancy Campus, home to the Glancy Rehabilitation Center, the Duluth location of GMC's Diabetes & Nutrition Education Center and the Duluth location of GMC's Center for Sleep Disorder.

The city made national headlines twice in 2005. In March, [[Fulton County, Georgia|Fulton County]] Courthouse shooting suspect [[Brian Nichols]] was captured in a Duluth apartment after holding a woman hostage. In April, local resident [[Jennifer Wilbanks]] was reported missing a few days before her planned wedding to John Mason. She was found a few days later in [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]], where she admitted to having lied about being [[kidnapping|kidnapped]].