The area where Albany is located was formerly inhabited by the Creek peopleCreek Indians. They called it Thronateeska after the flint found near the river. The Creeks used this stone to make arrowarrowheads and other tools. Connecticut businessman Nelson Tift settled along the Flint River in October, 1836 and named the new town after Albany, New York because they both sit at the navigable head of a river. The city was laid out by Alexander Shotwell in 1836. The city was incorporated by an act of the General Assembly of Georgia on December 27, 1838http://www.albany.ga.us/city_commission/cc_index.htm. Surrounded by a prosperous farming region which produced large amounts of cotton, Albany was in a prime location for transportation of cotton by steamboats on the river, over which Tift had Horace Nelson, a former slave, build a toll bridge in 1858. Albany later became a railroad hub and there is an exhibit on trains at the Thronateeska Heritage Center, which is located at the old railroad station. In 1841 the Flint river flooded the city. On April 11, 1906, the Carnegie Library opened downtown. It functioned as a library until 1985. In 1992 it reopened as the headquarters of the Albany Area Arts Council. In 1911 the first airmail flight in the U.S. was inaugurated and the first airmail stamp was struck, both in Albany. In 1912 the U.S. Postoffice and Courthouse building opened downtown. In 1925 the Flint river again flooded the city. In 1937 Chehaw park was established as a part of a New Deal program. On February 10, 1940, a severe tornado killed eighteen people and caused wide scale damage. In the summer of 1940 a Major Peacock approached the Albany Chamber of Commerce about the possibility of locating an Army Air Corp training base in Albany. Construction under the Army Corp of Engineers began March 25, 1941. The field was temporarily deactivated between August 15, 1946 and September 1, 1947 but then reactivated to support the Cold War, with the US Air Force stationing B-52 units and support units there. A number of other missions were hosted at Turner Air Force Base In 1988 Albany, GA made national headlines as the "Murder Capital of America," with the highest murder rate per capita in the United States. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany%2C_Georgia