CARROLL COUNTY -- Residents of a rural community in Carroll County say the state DOT erased them from the state map – and they don’t like it.

Hickory Level is one of hundreds of places that have occupied spots of Georgia’s official road maps until the state un-cluttered the map this year.

You know the old expression, “This is gonna put us on the map!” So imagine the reaction in Hickory Level when a state DOT decision put them off the map.

Hickory Level is a place where people still wave at passing cars, where houses built in the 1830’s are still lovingly lived in, where the center of the community is a crossroads with one store.

“We’re still here. We’ve been here since 1828,” says Dennis Holt with the Hickory Level Community Association.

It is still there in fact, but not in print.

In the Georgia DOT 2006 official state map – Hickory Level is missing. It’s not alone.

Now if you look at an old state map of Georgia and look at Carroll County, you can see places like Tyus, Lowell, Clem, Bowdon, Junction, Hulett, Sand Hill, Kansas Jake and Hickory Level. But now?

“Gone. We’re still here but the state doesn’t recognize us anymore,” says Holt.

The state map makers decided they had too many communities – they call them place-holders – squeezed into tiny little print.

“The map was too cluttered. We went ahead and took out all the place-holders that were under 2,500 people as defined by the census,” explained Karlene Barron with the Georgia DOT.

Dennis Holt counted more than 300 communities gone. The actual number is 515.

“Floyd County, which is where Rome is, lost 9 out of 11 – so the only thing left in Floyd County is Rome and Cave Spring,” says Holt.

“There has to be a cut-off,” said Barron.

“How are you gonna find anything? Many counties in south Georgia have been left virtually blank except for the county seat,” says Holt.

The state mapmakers have the latitude to change the criteria so some of the communities may make it back on the map – maybe by the 2008 edition. In the meantime, you’ll have to use an old map to find Hickory Level.