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Southwest Georgia - When Ray Charles sang the famous song "Georgia on My Mind," the world learned that even in dreams, Georgia is an unforgettable place. Whether you talk about the state's fiverse and ever-changing landscape, its patchwork of cultures, rich heritage, or warm, friendly people, Georgia's magic "comes as sweet and clear as moonlight through the pines." Georgia is the largest state east of the Mississippi. Georgia is a rolling land of magnolias and moss-draped oaks, mountains and pristine coastlines, pine trees, and cypress swamps. It's a place where friendships flourish over a slice of pecan pie and a glass of cool, sweet tea, where urban nightlife is as easily accessible as a star-filled evening in the company of crickets. Here traditional values commingle with progressive ideas, and bustling cities coexist with a dynamic farm and timber heritage. Georgia is a leading producer of pecans, peaches, peanuts, tobacco, Vidalia onions, and forest products. From the mountains to the coast, through the heartland and the rivers you will find a little of everything.
The intoxicating scent of fresh peaches fills the air in the Historic South Georgia region. Where Georgia's heartland brims with colorful gardens, deep historical resonance, and lively, music-filled towns like Athens and Macon.
Time seems to stand sill in the Southern Rivers region, a fertile belt of agricultural bounty. Follow the paths of presidents at prominent historic sites, visit flourishing gardens, or step back in time at beautifully preserved plantations. Southwest Georgia has plenty of exploring to do. Whether you sample your way through Southwest Georgia restaurants or make a hole-in-one on a Southwest Georgia golf course, enter a pie-eating contest or raft down a fast-flowing Georgia river, one thing is for sure: Georgia will linger in your heart like a fond memory or a new best friend. Like a favorite song, Georgia will remain forever on your mind. (sowega)
South of Athens is where you'll find Milledgeville, a former state capital of Georgia, location of Georgia College and State University, which serves as the repository for the memorabilia and papers of Flannery O'Connor. The author, who lived nearby on her mother's farm, Andalusia which is now open for tours, wrote such classics as Wise Blood and numerous short stories - troubling fiction that depicts eccentric characters and poses fundamental questions of morality, ethics, and fate.
In nearby, Eatonton, a statue of Br'er Rabbit presides over the courthouse square. It was here that Joel Chandler Harris heard old slave stories and recorded them as tales told by his alter ego, Uncle Remus. Eatonton also claims the distiction of being the hometown of writer Alice Walker, author of such works as The Color Purple. A self-guided Alice Walker Driving Tour takes visitors to some significant sites from her childhood.
Aside from its literary and musical attractions, the Historic Heartland also features one of the area's oldes works of art. Near Eatonton, native inhabitants 5,000 years ago piled quartz into the shape of large bird. Today, Rock Eagle Effigy Mound provides testimony to the fact that the currents of inspiration running through the region today have been flowing for millennia. Georgia's Peach Blossom Trail was created to celebrate the reputation of Georgia as the Peach State. In spring, the countryside is covered with the blooming peach trees and in the summer the highways are lined with roadside stands where you can find jellies and jams and a chance to appreciate the fields covered with bountiful orchards.
For the shopper on the hunt for the perfect treasure, the Georgia Antique Trail treks to more than 200 antiques dealers in almost two dozen area towns.
Much of the land along the Altamaha River is as wild today as it was a hundred years ago, and it is prized as a natural area where we can experience what it must have been like for those intrepid early explorers who ventured into the southeastern forests. This part of Georgia has its own particular geological characteristics. Sand ridges left behind by the retreating ancient sea rise and fall, lending shape and contour to the landscape. These ridges and their unique ecology can best be experienced a the Big Hammock Natural Area on the Altamaha near Blennvile, a habitat for rare plants and reptiles, species like the Georgia plume and turkey oak, and the threatened indigo snake. The distinctive geology of the region has also given rise to one of the most famous products to come out of Georgia. Since the 1930's, when a local farmer discovered that the onions he was pulling out of the soil in the area around Vidalia were mild enough to be eaten like apples, Vidalia onions have been prized by cooks around the world. The bounty provided the community by this sweet onion is celebrated in April or May each year with the Vidalia Onion Festival. This is just some of what the Historic South is all about - vibrant towns, thriving cities, and creative people. It's about adventure and discovery, revelation and relaxation. It's about seeking rare experiences and finding that they are bountiful. Along the Chattahoochee River, lies Southwest Georgia's largest city, Columbus, Georgia. The river has always been at the heart of Columbus's identity. Trails for biking, hiking, walking, and jogging wind along the Columbus Riverwalk. Being a river town, Columbus is an appropriate location for the Port Columbus National Civil War Naval Museum, which contains period artifacts that tell the stories of the numerous nautical innovations and inventions developed during the Civil War, including two Confederate warships recovered from the Chattahoochee River. Once the site of factories that built warships for the Confederacy, Columbus continues to play a role in national defense today. The Columbus area miliatary base Fort Benning has been one of the major training facilities for America's fighting men and women. The national Infantry Museum exhibits tell of the hardships and heroics of the foot soldiers who have fought for America's freedom since the Revolution. Columbus is also home of the Springer Opera House, the official state theater of Georgia. Visitors to Southwest Georgia can leap into the future and travel to space a the Coca-Cola Space Science Center in Columbus.
Traveling south in this otherwise rolling countryside to Stewart County, you'll come upon Providence Canyon State Conservation Park in Lumpkin, which has been nicknamed Georgia's Little Grand Canyon. Just a bit south of Lumpkin, a short drive becomes a trip through time when you enter Westville Village, a living-history museum where guides dress in costumes from the 1850's and demonstrate arts and crafts from that period. The structures collected at Westville include farmhouses, blacksmith shops, a cotton gin, and stately mansions. Southwest Georgia features interesting creations that grow and change with the seasons. In Taylor County, near Reynolds, the AgriMaze at Taylor Orchards leads kids and grownups along challenging paths through acres of corn planted in themed designs that in recent years have included a Southern Belle and the solar system. West of Barnesville, the MAiZE at Rock Ranch also offers visitors a chance to get lost in their imaginations, as well as to enjoy fall fun with hayrides and a petting zoo. More that corn growns in this part of Georgia. There are plenty of peanuts, too. Sumter County is home of President Jimmy Carter. The old Plains High School has been converted into a museum that anchors the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site. There are more that two dozen other Carter-related attractions around Plains. Down the road a bit, is Andersonville National Historic Site, which preserves the Andersonville National Cemetery and Camp Sumter, as well as maintaining the National Prisoner of War Museu, where exhibits pay tribute to American prisoners of all wars, from the Revolutionary War to the Persion Gulf War. In Americus, the Windsor Hotel and Rylander Theatre are restored historic sites, and in the small southwest Georgia town of Leslie, the Georgia Rural Telephone Museum serves as a remarkable record of the route that led to today's modern digital telecommunications.
Just below Leslie and Plains, lies the Southwest Georgia region known as Plantation Trace, a region of small-town culture and antebellum elegance. In this largely agricultural part of Georgia, visitor will drive past pine forests and peanut fields as they wander through a land of history and heritage. Albany is Plantation Trace's largest city, and it boasts of being the pecan capital of the world, thanks to the acres of pecan trees that cover the surrounding countryside. Albany is also the birthplace of Ray Charles. When in the Plantation Trace region of Southwest Georgia, be sure to attend one of the local festivals held throughout the year, and you'll see that folks in southwest Georgia really know how to throw a party. Sylvester Georgia Peanut Festival, Swine Time in Climas, Mule Day in Calvary, Whigham Rattlesnake Roundup, Moultrie Sunbelt Agricultual Expo. Wild Adventures Theme Park near Valdosta. Kolomoki Mounds State Historic Park near Blakely.
Fort Gaines, an outpost built in 1814 to protect Georgia's newly acquired territory. Fort Gaines Frontier Village features log houses, a gristmill, a pioneer cemetery, a commisary, and a replica of the original fort. Colquitt, the home of Swamp Gravy. Tifton, the Georgia Agrirama, the official state living-history museum. Thomasville, the City of Roses and numerous plantations. Quail, rivers, and roses. Presidents, peanuts, and plantations. History and nature, luxurious elegance and simple pleasures, that's what makes Southwest Georgia one of the most attractive parts of the state of Georgia.