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Bessie

Ghost town · Wilkes County, Georgia

Celeste quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1971, 1:24,000)
Celeste quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1971, 1:24,000) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Bessie is a ghost town in Wilkes County, Georgia. It is one of 7 former communities in Wilkes County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 24th among the 125 Georgia counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Bessie as a historical populated place on the Celeste topographic quadrangle: the name is no longer in official use for a community, whether the settlement was abandoned, absorbed into a neighbouring town or renamed. The recorded location is 33.8148° N, 82.8110° W.

Key facts

USGS quadrangleCeleste
Elevation583 ft
Nearest living townTignall, GA
Distance to it5.3 miles
GNIS feature ID342737
Coordinates33.81485, -82.81098

Open the location on a map

Then and now

Drag the slider: the old USGS map on the left, the same ground from the air today on the right. Both cover the same 1.9-mile square centred on the recorded location.

Bessie today, aerial view
Celeste quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1971, 1:24,000)

Left: Celeste quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1971, 1:24,000), U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection. Right: The same ground today: NAIP aerial imagery, USDA Farm Service Agency, National Agriculture Imagery Program (via USGS). Both public domain.

What's there now

Bessie is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Tignall, GA (population 981), about 5.3 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 583 feet above sea level. The aerial view above shows what covers the ground today. Much of the land around former townsites is private; check access before you visit.

Nearby places

Questions

Where is Bessie?

Bessie is in Wilkes County, Georgia, at 33.8148, -82.8110.

How many ghost towns are in Wilkes County?

Wilkes County, Georgia has 7 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.

Sources and licences

Facts marked "approximately" carry an uncertain date in the source. Text on this page is generated from the sources above; no encyclopedia prose is copied. Last updated 2026-11-06.