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The Pike County Commission is planning the celebration of Pike County’s 200th birthday.

County Administrator McKenzie Wilson said the county will have a booth this weekend at TroyFest to let people know that a big celebration for the county is in the works. She said the county also will have plenty of information about the origins of Pike County, including maps and old photos for people to view during the annual spring arts and crafts festival.

“We’ll have old pictures and maps for people to look at,” Wilson said. “We’ll also have a lot of history about Pike County. At one time, it was so big, it was called the ‘State of Pike.’

“Right now, we have committees made up of people from around Pike County, our cities and our towns. We’re planning for a celebration in December, when Pike County was formed. Leading up to the birthday celebration, we’ll have different activities planned and then we’ll have a couple of bigger activities for the public.”

Wilson said there are no concrete plans just yet, the committees are just getting started planning. But, she said the commission wanted to let everyone know it was planning something for later this year.

According to Margaret Pace Farmer’s “History of Pike County Alabama,” Pike County was originally consisted of parts of Barbour, Bullock and Crenshaw counties and encompassed about 1,100 square miles. The county was created by a act of the Alabama Legislature on Dec. 7, 1821, and another act of Dec. 13, 1821, established the house of Andrew Townsend, near present day China Grove, as the temporary county seat.

TroyFest will be held in downtown Troy on April 24-25 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is free.