The McIntosh Reserve Heritage Vision Steering Committee was formed in 1994 to advise the Board of Commissioners of Carroll County, Georgia, on recreational opportunities available at McIntosh Reserve Park. Later changing its name to Friends of McIntosh Reserve, Inc., the organization more formally organized itself in 2001 and began soliciting membership contributions. In April 2007, the group incorporated as a non-profit corporation. Throughout its existence, the organization’s mission has been “to promote the study, interpretation and use of McIntosh Reserve Park and its adjacent lands as a natural and historical area worthy of preservation.”

McIntosh Reserve Park is named for Chief William McIntosh of the Creek Native American tribe. McIntosh allied himself with the U.S. government in the era of the early republic, helping General Andrew Jackson reach New Orleans during the War of 1812. In the Jacksonian period, McIntosh supported accommodating to the policy of Native American removal, believing that this would lead to the least amount of harm coming to the Creek peoples. In February 1825, McIntosh signed the Treaty of Indian Springs, which ceded much of western Georgia to the United States government, and McIntosh was allowed to keep his plantation in Carroll County in exchange for signing the treaty. McIntosh’s plantation was attacked in April 1825 by Creeks hostile to the treaty, and he was killed in the attack. The McIntosh Reserve Park occupies the former site of this plantation.