COMMUNITY PROFILES
Community PROFILES By Erica Schmidt eschmidt@dawsonnews.com
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ne of the things that makes Dawson County so unique is the wide range of people and families living here. From lifelong residents to transplants that only recently began calling Dawson County home, the citizens of our county each contribute to making it the vibrant place it is. Here are a few of the county’s citizens and why they love living in Dawson.
NAME: Bill Elliott WHO HE IS: Elliott is a retired professional NASCAR driver, whose successful racing career earned him the nickname “Awesome Bill from Dawsonville”. HOW LONG HAVE YOU LIVED IN DAWSON AND WHAT DREW YOU TO THE COUNTY? Elliott was born and raised in Dawson County and has lived here his entire life. “Both my mother and dad grew up in the county and that’s where I call home,” Elliott said. “It’s been a home all my life and it was just a great place to grow up.” In his time growing up in Dawsonville, Elliott remembers some of the pieces of history that shaped the county’s legacy. “For me, growing up here it was kind of a sleepy little community with its own personality and there were a lot of people who did different things to make a living, including some illegal things like making moonshine which has become a whole separate industry today,” Elliott said. “Between what NASCAR’s ties are here and the moonshiners and what that brought to the county, that’s all part of it.” Throughout his time living in the county, Bill has seen Dawson change a lot from what it was when he was growing up here. “Since the 400 corridor came through, that’s what to me has changed the county dramatically — when I was growing up here, we didn’t even have a traffic light,” Elliott said. “Now we have Amicalola Falls and all the parks on the north end and all the growth on the south end, and that’s all a part of how our county continues to change and what makes it what it is.”
“The county pretty much speaks for itself and it has a little bit of everything,” Elliott said. “It’s relatively close to Forsyth and all the growth there, it has a lake and everything else and I think that’s what attracts people to come here.”
WHAT DO YOU LOVE THE MOST ABOUT DAWSON COUNTY? One of the things Elliott said makes Dawson a great place to live is how multifaceted it is.
“I’ve enjoyed living here,” Bill said. “It’s a great place and a great community, and it’s got a lot of good people in it.”
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As a lifelong resident of the county, the other thing Bill likes about the county is its sense of community.
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