Located in extreme southeast Georgia, Okeefenokee Parkway, better known as GA 40, extends 31.0 miles from Folkston in Charlton County to St. Marys in Camden County. Remote and swampy among most of its course, the route ends in an area that is fast becoming suburbanized by metropolitan Jacksonville. GA 40 also intersects I-95 between Kingsland and St. Marys.

GA 40 is also joined by GA 40 Spur, a 6.7 mile long dead-end highway that ends at Crooked River next to Crooked River State Park and also serves the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Support Base. GA 40 Spur is located in Camden County and extends out of St. Marys.

GA 40 is a highway that stuck to the plan, and indeed it has not changed its course any since it was first commissioned. The original 1920 Georgia map proposed the route extend from present-day U.S. 1 (originally simply GA 15) in Folkston to St. Marys, where the highway would connect to a new crossing into Florida over the St. Marys River.

The highway itself took awhile to be completed, however. In 1921, only the route from present-day U.S. 17 (then GA 27) in Kingsland to St. Marys was established. Still unpaved in 1929, the crossing into Florida was instead built on recently commissioned U.S. 17/GA 25, thus the St. Marys crossing was abandoned. However, the early 1930's saw the original route to Folkston finally established. However, it was still little more than a wagon road, or as the map indicated "unimproved, but maintained". In the late 1930's, around half of the road was paved with the entire route in Charlton County hard surfaced and the portion from Kingsland to St. Marys also fully paved. By then, GA 110 joined the highway midway between Folkston and Kingsland.

The mid-1940's saw completion of the paving of GA 40. By then, the single banner route of GA 40 was fully established as well, GA 40 Spur. All parts of GA 40 and GA 40 Spur were paved and the original planned route was fully actualized.

The 2001 map shows the mysterious GA 40 Connector, which had never previously appeared on any map. The eastern portion is County Road 80, which on the 2002 map on the right, is now GA 252, but no maps show a western portion. Since I have not been in the area since 1992, I would need a local to confirm if a road is there.

The history of GA 40 would have stopped at this point, but two last developments happened along the route. The first was the creation of a second, short-lived banner route for GA 40, GA 40 Connector. GA 40 Connector was established in 2000, but only lasted a brief time. By 2001, GA 40 Connector was decommissioned and instead GA 252 relocated along the eastern portion of the route. GA 40 Connector extended from U.S. 1 north of the city to GA 40 east of the city according to the map, but no other maps show any road extending east of GA 252. The eastern portion, however, was originally C.R. 80 before eventually becoming part of GA 252.

Since that time, GA 40 has had one more major project: the widening of part of GA 40 east of I-95 into St. Marys. This work was completed in 2002. Previously, GA 40 was only four lanes where the highway intersects with I-95.