Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park is a 1,200 acre tract of land purchased by the Crisp County Commissioners and given to the State of Georgia on December 4, 1946, in grateful appreciation of, and as a living memorial to, the devotion to duty, heroic service, and unselfish sacrifice of Georgia war veterans. The memorial lies shielded and almost surrounded by Lake Blackshear, formed by the backwaters of the Crisp County Hydroelectric Power Dam, the first county owned, constructed, and operated hydroelectric power project in the United States. Along the south border of the memorial park lies Camp Safety Patrol, established in 1951 and sponsored by the Safety Education Division of the Georgia Department of Public Safety and the Georgia Department Veterans of Foreign Wars, the first school patrol safety training camp in the nation dedicated to teaching safety to youth.