Marion County is named for the Patriot hero, General Francis Marion, the "Swamp Fox." The county seat, Buena Vista, commemorates the famous battle during the Mexican War. The county was created from Lee and Muscogee counties in 1827. Good rel ations with the Creek Indians in this region permitted opening of a trace in 1805 that led westward toward Mobile, Alabama. It became the old Federal Road, west Georgia's first vehicular thoroughfare.