Darien stands on a mainland bluff over the Darien River, beside the Altamaha delta, and it has been there since 1736, when Scottish Highlanders settled the site at Oglethorpe’s direction. It incorporated in 1816 under an act titled, plainly enough, An Act To Incorporate the Town of Darien.
The river was fought over before the town was built on it. Fort King George, just outside town, is a reconstruction of the British frontier fort that held this stretch from 1721 to 1727, with a museum and the remains of the later sawmills beside it, and it went on the National Register in 1971.
Inside the town limits are two listed historic districts, West Darien and Vernon Square-Columbus Square, and Vernon Square was the business, social and religious center of nineteenth century Darien. Ashantilly, Thomas Spalding’s mainland home and later the home of Ashantilly Press, sits just outside the town and was listed in 2015.
Darien Waterfront Park, east of the highway bridge, puts a dock, a pavilion and a playground on the river where the shrimp fleet ties up. Commercial shrimping and fishing remain part of Darien’s waterfront, as lumber export was in the nineteenth century.
The town is small and it is growing. The Census counted 1,460 residents and 862 housing units in 2020, and the estimate for July 2025 was 1,807, twenty-four percent above the count, which is a large proportional change on a small base. McIntosh County Schools serves the town, with its board of education in Darien, and I-95 Exit 49 brings you in on GA 251 and US 17.
Two numbers and one address cause confusion here. McIntosh County’s own solid waste plan prints Darien’s population as 2,230 and attributes it to the 2020 Census; the Census figure is 1,460, and that is the one we use. And the Sapelo Island ferry dock has a Darien mailing address, 1766 Landing Road SE, but the dock is at Meridian and the island is offshore, so a Darien address does not mean downtown Darien.
Sourced: 1736 founding and the 1816 incorporating act, City of Darien and the act’s own text. Population and housing units, U.S. Census Bureau 2020 count and Vintage 2025 estimate. Register listings and reference numbers, National Park Service. Waterfront park and shrimp fleet, McIntosh County and Georgia state tourism. Fort King George dates, Georgia DNR. Access, Georgia DOT.