Alma, GA

Alma is Bacon County’s seat, a city of 3,433 people at the 2020 census, laid out around the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1900, incorporated in 1906, and made the county seat in 1914. U.S. Routes 1 and 23 run together through the center before splitting north of town. That gives Alma a practical county-seat shape: courthouse and county offices, schools, small businesses, and highway traffic all meet in the same compact Georgia crossroads.

ATTRMichael Rivera / CC BY-SA 4.0

Blueberries are the crop people associate with Alma and Bacon County. Commercial production took root in the early 1970s through work by local farmers, Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, and University of Georgia Extension. The Georgia Blueberry Festival began in 1974 and returns the first weekend of June at Goldwasser Park with a parade, food, music, contests, and local vendors. Coastal Pines Technical College also has an Alma site, offering technical degrees, certificates, adult education, and workforce training. Alma’s story runs from railroad county seat to blueberry center, with schools, a technical college, and the festival filling out the present-day calendar.