[5] It is also the principal city of the Dalton Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Murray and Whitfield counties.

Dalton is home to many of the nation's floor-covering manufacturers, primarily those producing carpet, rugs, and vinyl flooring.

It is home to the Dalton Convention Center, which showcases the Georgia Athletic Coaches' Hall of Fame and hosts a variety of events.

After the lay-offs companies like Mohawk Industries paid workers with twenty years seniority a "small severance package.

Founded in 1963 by a group of civic leaders, the Creative Arts Guild began as a grass-roots community movement originally housed in the Old Firehouse on Pentz Street in historic Downtown Dalton.

The Guild began offering art, music, dance and theatre classes as well as gallery shows and exhibitions.

The vision of that small group of patrons has grown into an organization that now houses four educational departments (visual art, dance, gymnastics, and music) as well as the Arts in Education outreach programs, events, gallery exhibits, music and dance concerts and recitals and acts as a hub of culture for North West Georgia and South East Tennessee.

[21] Artistic Civic Theatre has served the Northwest Georgia community for twenty-four years, and has reached thousands of citizens through major musical, comedy, and drama productions, ACT2 (the children's wing), student productions in cooperation with schools in Dalton, Whitfield, and Murray counties, touring productions of original adaptations of classic fairy tales, theatrical arts classes co-sponsored with the Creative Arts Guild, the annual Youth Theatre Camp, and the Studio Cabaret live music series.

Consider becoming a member or corporate sponsor and help us continue to provide theatrical arts opportunities, entertainment, and educational programs to the Northwest Georgia Community.

The Young Professionals of Northwest Georgia host a monthly social event to connect and engage area young professionals[24] Woodland Indians and Creek Nation initially held the area of present-day Dalton, Georgia.

Catherine Evans Whitener's revitalization of the pre-Civil War-era craft of candlewicking gave rise to a cottage chenille bedspread industry.

Homes along U.S. Highway 41 displayed brightly patterned homemade bedspreads on front yard clotheslines in hopes of luring tourists into a purchase.

The stretch of highway passing through Whitfield County became known colloquially as "Peacock Alley" in reference to one of the most common patterns depicted on the bedspreads.

[26] During the Civil War, the city of Dalton saw its first action during the Great Locomotive Chase, on April 12, 1862.

The war came to Whitfield County at the First Battle of Dalton, a series of skirmishes between February 22 and February 27, 1864, during which Union Major General George H. Thomas probed Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Tennessee to determine if the loss of two full divisions to reinforce Confederate forces elsewhere had made the Army of Tennessee vulnerable to Union attack.

At the beginning of the Atlanta campaign, the Battle of Rocky Face Ridge and Dug Gap began on May 7, 1864, and ended when Johnston completed the withdrawal of his forces from Dalton on May 12.

In John Bell Hood's Tennessee campaign, soldiers of Major General Samuel G. French's Division of Lieutenant General Alexander Stewart's Corps of the Confederate Army of Tennessee attacked a Union blockhouse in Tilton before passing through Dalton and heading west.

The U.S. government recently declared Dalton and Whitfield County to have more intact Civil War artifacts than any other place in the country.

The steel center marker for the original surveying of the city of Dalton is still inside the depot.

Demand for the spreads became so great that by the 1930s, local women had "haulers," who would take the stamped sheeting and yarns to front porch workers.

The initial investment significantly boosted local employment, and subsequent expansion plans by Qcells have promised even more growth.

This growth has been supported by Sen. Jon Ossoff's Solar Energy Manufacturing for America Act, which was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on November 19, 2021.

By encouraging local manufacturing in the solar sector, the act aims to strengthen Georgia's renewable energy infrastructure, reduce dependence on imports, create local jobs, and contribute to broader green economy goals in the United States.

The river and city water supply has been contaminated with perfluorinated compounds used to make carpets stain-resistant.

[40][41] Dalton Utilities' has processed wastewater using a land application system, that spread effluent on more than nine thousand forested acres in an area called Looper's Bend.

The last train was an unnamed L&N Evansville, Indiana - Atlanta, Georgia remnant of the Georgian, ending service on April 30, 1971.