InTucker Magazine

DEKALB COW-NTY PRIDE

DeKalb County is celebrating the reconstruction of the DeKalb Arts Council with a new public art initiative funded by CEO Lorraine Cochran-Johnson. Each of the twelve cities in the county has been gifted a life size fiberglass cow with additional funding to design and create an original piece of art reflective of the cities’ unique identities, cultures and histories and placed in a significant location.

Cows were chosen to honor DeKalb County’s early history as the “Dairy Capital of Georgia.” At the turn of the 20th century, much of the land in DeKalb County was undeveloped farmland. The arrival of the boll weevil around 1920 decimated cotton crops, and farmers were forced to pivot. While some grew different crops, others began dairy farming. Automobiles, electricity and refrigeration prolonged the shelf life and delivery radius of dairy products, and the growth of the nearby Atlanta market meant heavy demand. At one point, “all undeveloped land in the county was zoned for dairy farming.” By 1939, 200+ dairy farms operated within DeKalb County and it had earned its title.

After World War II, industrialization sped through Metro Atlanta. Home loan programs enacted in the 1930s to alleviate the effects of the Great Depression made home buying more achievable, and it became profitable for companies to purchase large tracts of land on which to build subdivisions. When pasteurization became mandated in 1943, rather than purchase expensive new equipment, many farms sold off their land to be chopped up for housing development. The housing boom continued, and DeKalb County’s population tripled in size by 1970.

Dairy farming still had its place in DeKalb County for a time. Mathis Dairy served as a popular field trip location for DeKalb County schools from the 1950s until 1984, and the opportunity to milk Guernsey cow Rosebud and receive an “I milked Rosebud” button kept children in touch with the county’s history.

The last dairy farm in DeKalb County was sold in 1995 according to the Atlanta Journal-
Constitution.

The City of Tucker will place its cow at Johns Homestead Park to honor the space’s history as farmland. The City placed a call for artists last month but the outcome was unknown at the time of printing. The artwork is expected to be completed by late October, and the decorated cow will be placed near the champion tree on the trail inside the park.

This article takes significant historical context from a report by Georgia State University’s Heritage Preservation Graduate Studies Program, Burton et al: “Single-Family Residential Development DeKalb County, Georgia 1945-1970” and DeKalb History Center’s 2023 blog post by Kathryn Turnbull, “No Cattle Left at the Ranch (Home): DeKalb’s Dairies to Homes.”