[8][9] The name Ball Ground was initially given by settlers to refer to an area of land, not for the town or community.

When a fight broke out during the game, the umpire was killed, taking the secret of the location of the Fountain of Youth with him.

[13] After acquisition from the Cherokee in the 1830s, Ball Ground was originally settled as farmland and had few people living in the area.

The deed of transfer to the railroad company noted that “The consideration moving each of us in the establishing of this town is the enhanced value to our lands within and adjacent to the said town, and the general benefit to the country, by which we shall be benefited.”[15] The donated land was split into 200 lots and sold via an auction held in Ball Ground on April 18, 1883, along with other additional properties including a 65 acres (26 ha; 0.102 sq mi) farm and a nearby mill.

[24] That same month the Marietta and North Georgia railroad missed their payment deadline and the sale moved forward.

[25] On November 1, 1896, the Marietta and North Georgia Railroad was purchased by and turned over to the Atlanta, Knoxville, and Northern railway.

[29] An updated charter passed by an act of the Georgia General Assembly in 1911 greatly expanded the powers of the municipal government, including the ability to pass municipal ordinances, and established a school district within Ball Ground.

[33] The Ball Ground Community Association was formed in early 1972 to promote the town and to organize festivals and cultural events.

[34] The first event the association organized was the May 1972 spring festival and parade, which included a delegation from the Cherokee Nation.

[7] As part of the festival, two Cherokee teams played a game of stickball against one another, and then-Lieutenant Governor Lester Maddox served as the parade's grand marshal.

[40] The sewage system was completed in Fall 2003 amid ongoing development in and around Ball Ground.

[41][42] Ball Ground is located at the foothills of the North Georgia mountains[43] in the northeastern portion of Cherokee County.

[49][50]: 103  The bedrock underneath the city consists of igneous and metamorphic rocks such as gneiss and schist.

[50]: 104  The land in and around Ball Ground is rich in marble deposits[51] as well as talc, pyrite, and gold.

[54] Unlike most other parts of Cherokee County, Ball Ground is not in a floodplain and has no typically flood prone areas.

[62][61] After the improvements to the sewage infrastructure and the development of homes and businesses in and around Ball Ground in the 2000s,[42] the city began to see large amounts of growth.

[64] When Ball Ground was first established, a large portion of its economy was based on agriculture and the railroad that passed through town, which brought marble from Tate, Georgia to be processed and finished by marble companies in Ball Ground.

The Coca-Cola Company opened a bottling plant in Ball Ground in 1903[43]: 6  which operated for 30 years, closing in 1933.

[43]: 28  Tyson Foods operated a feed mill in Ball Ground from 1965 to 1998, when it moved to a larger facility in Bartow County.

[50]: 99 In May 2015, Universal Alloy Corporation (UAC) announced it was building a new factory in Ball Ground to supply Boeing with parts for aircraft wing assemblies.

[73] In 2009, the Ball Ground Historic District was listed on the NRHP, for its significance to Native American and early national history.

[77] It was estimated that approximately 5,000 people attended the event in 2017, where attendees are asked to bring unwrapped presents to donate to Toys for Tots.

[78] In the summers, Ball Ground's City Park hosts weekly movies and concerts.

[96][97] With the exception of a small police department managed by the city,[50]: 144  most services are provided by Cherokee County, including animal control, building inspections, planning and zoning, parks and recreation, and jail operations.

[107] As part of the North Georgia area, Ball Ground's primary network-affiliated television stations are WXIA-TV (NBC), WANF (CBS), WSB-TV (ABC), and WAGA-TV (Fox).

[114] Portions of Howell Bridge Road are also named State Route 5 Business, which runs through the city in a general west-to-east direction, and intersects with Georgia State Route 5 (also called Ball Ground Highway) within the city.

State Route 5 runs parallel to Interstate 575 within the city limits in a similar southwest-to-northeast direction.

[116] Georgia Northeastern Railroad is a freight rail that runs through and has a stop in Ball Ground.