Saturday, April 25, 2026

Question: Which Georgia city is known as the “Carpet Capital of the World”?

Answer: In 1895, Dalton teenager Catherine Evans Whitener revived an old hand-tufting technique to make a chenille bedspread, sparking a local cottage industry along U.S. Highway 41. After World War II, manufacturers adapted the tufting method to broadloom machines, producing carpet far cheaper than traditional woven carpet, just as postwar Americans began wall-to-wall carpeting their suburban homes. Today, the Dalton area produces roughly 85–90% of the carpet made in the United States and is home to Shaw Industries and Mohawk Industries.