Arlington, GA

Arlington sits in southwest Georgia across Calhoun and Early counties, roughly midway between Albany and Dothan. The city began in 1873 and was chartered in 1881, with the railroad doing much of the early heavy lifting. The tracks made Arlington a shipping and business point for the surrounding farm country, and the county line still gives the town an unusual map: most everyday references point toward Calhoun, while part of the city lies in Early.

ATTRMichael Rivera / CC BY-SA 4.0

May is when Arlington's civic calendar shows its hand. The May Day Festival, held the first Saturday in May, brings the town back to its older role as a regional gathering point, while peanut, cotton, corn, and other farm fields set the background beyond downtown. Calhoun County Elementary serves families on the Calhoun side, with middle and high school in Edison. Arlington is not a county seat today, but it served as one from 1923 to 1929 and still carries that courthouse-era confidence: a small rail town with two county lines, one spring festival, and a lot of Southwest Georgia road between neighbors.