Sheffield WMA - Cochran camping area

public land records

Thin — A single weak source put this here. Treat the location itself as unconfirmed, not just the details.

GA DNR layer values for this point, verbatim: Camping='Primitive', Access='Year Round', Maintained=None, Management='GM', Comments='Walk in only during summer months. ', Name='Cochran camping area'. Coordinate is Georgia DNR Wildlife Resources Division's own, unrounded, from the agency's public WMA feature service, layer 6 "Campgrounds" (188 points statewide, read 2026-08-16): https://services6.arcgis.com/9QlSLDqa0P1cHLhu/arcgis/rest/services/WRD_WMA_Public/FeatureServer/6 . Not derived, not geocoded, not rounded by us. CONFIDENCE=LOW, AND HERE IS EXACTLY WHY: Georgia DNR's Campgrounds layer maps a campground at this coordinate, but this property's own page on georgiawildlife.com does not mention camping anywhere in its text - it neither permits nor forbids it. That is a SINGLE agency source, not two. Under rule 391-4-2-.61(1) camping on a WMA is confined to designated campgrounds "unless otherwise posted at the check station", so a DNR-mapped designated campground on a WMA that does not prohibit camping is most likely legal - but DNR has not said so in words and WE HAVE NOT CONFIRMED IT. Verify at the check station before publishing. Property page read: https://georgiawildlife.com/sheffield-wma (2026-08-16). FEE BASIS: Georgia DNR prints a "Fees & Passes" block on every property page and none of the 135 WMA pages read this fire names a camping fee. State-managed WMAs and PFAs print "Land Access: Hunting License, Fishing License, or Lands Pass" - i.e. a licence or Lands Pass is required to BE on the property at all, camping or not. GA DNR (https://georgiawildlife.com/LicenseChanges, read 2026-08-16): "The WMA License is no longer available or required." / "A basic hunting or fishing privilege that allows hunting or fishing on state lands is all that is needed to be present on designated state WMAs". We found no first-party page printing the Lands Pass price, so no price is claimed here. This is an ABSENCE-OF-CAMPING-FEE finding, not a published "free" statement; fee=0 means "no camping charge", not "free to enter". REVIEWER: decide whether a pass-gated site should be labelled on a free-camping map. STATEWIDE WMA RULE, Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. R. 391-4-2-.61 (Camping Regulations on Wildlife Management Areas), verbatim: "All camps or fires shall be in designated campgrounds unless otherwise posted at the check station, except that camping is allowed anywhere on National Forest lands unless otherwise indicated or signed."; camping limited to "a period of time not to exceed 14 consecutive days; after which the campsite shall be vacated and all personally owned property or physical features of the camp removed for a period of not less than 7 days."; "It is unlawful for any person to use any musical instruments, radios, televisions, generators or other noise making devices after 10:00 p.m. daily, in such a manner that such devices may be heard by other WMA visitors." SOURCING CAVEAT: Georgia's official rules host (rules.sos.ga.gov) renders rule text via JavaScript and returned no body text; its API paths returned 403. This rule text was read at https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/georgia/Ga-Comp-R-Regs-R-391-4-2-.61 (Cornell LII), a REPRODUCTION, NOT a .gov source. Clause (1) is corroborated by GA DNR's own per-property pages. --- REVIEW 2026-08-20 (nightshift-verified) --- PRIMARY SOURCE RE-FETCHED TODAY: GA DNR WRD_WMA_Public FeatureServer layer 6 "Campgrounds", https://services6.arcgis.com/9QlSLDqa0P1cHLhu/arcgis/rest/services/WRD_WMA_Public/FeatureServer/6 -- still live, still returns exactly 188 points. This point still exists at the SAME coordinate to 1e-6 deg (no drift) and every attribute recorded at discovery (Camping / Access / Maintained / Management / Comments / Name) still matches, field for field. NEW CHECK THIS PASS: the coordinate was run point-in-polygon against DNR's own WMA Boundary layer (same service, layer 14) and it falls inside its own named WMA -- 21 of the 21 GA points reviewed this pass passed that test. Coordinate-duplicate check against every other GA row in the database: nearest neighbour is over 1.5 km away, so this is not a re-listing of anything already on the map. SECOND-SOURCE TEST (the bar the 2026-08-18 GA pass set: the layer must mark THIS point as camping, AND a second first-party DNR document must say the property has camping). FIRST SOURCE: the layer marks THIS point Camping='Primitive' and gives it a real DNR-supplied name, 'Cochran camping area' -- and it is the only Campgrounds-layer point on the whole of Sheffield WMA. Its Maintained attribute is NULL, which is a gap, but a positive Camping value plus a DNR name is a genuine affirmation, not the bare layer membership that got the Big Lazer Creek rows parked on 2026-08-18. SECOND SOURCE: https://georgiawildlife.com/sites/default/files/wrd/pdf/maps/locationmaps/SheffieldWMA.pdf, the official Sheffield WMA map, was downloaded and read today and lists under Legend > Infrastructure: "Camping, Information Kiosk, Parking". DNR symbolises camping on this property's own map. (The sheffield-wma property page lists only Geocaching, Hunting and Wildlife Viewing under Activities -- the map is what carries the camping.) RESTRICTION THAT MUST REACH THE PAGE: DNR's Comments field on this point reads, verbatim, "Walk in only during summer months." So for part of the year this is a walk-in, not a drive-up, and DNR does not publish which months. The same map gives the Sheffield sign-in kiosk as N 34.0242693 / W -84.9061186 and the area office as 706-295-6041. The statewide rule text was also re-read today at https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/georgia/Ga-Comp-R-Regs-R-391-4-2-.61 and is unchanged, including clause (1) "All camps or fires shall be in designated campgrounds unless otherwise posted at the check station..." and the 14-consecutive-day / 7-day-vacate limit in clause (2). Clause (1) also carries "All campers must comply with any conditions of use as posted or provided by the site." SOURCING CAVEAT UNCHANGED: Georgia's own rules host rules.sos.ga.gov was retried today on three paths and returned 403 every time, so the rule text is still only available to us through a REPRODUCTION, not a .gov source. https://georgiawildlife.com/LicenseChanges was also re-read today and still says "The WMA License is no longer available or required" and that a basic hunting or fishing privilege "is all that is needed to be present on designated state WMAs". VERDICT: HOLDS UP -> approved, on condition the "walk in only during summer months" line is shown to the reader.

US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.

On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.