Baxley, GA

Appling County's seat sits in southeast Georgia's wiregrass country, where Baxley grew around the Macon and Brunswick Railroad. Wilson Baxley, a local storekeeper dealing in cattle and timber, sold the railroad a right of way near his store; the line called the site Station Number 7 before the town took his name. The railroad helped shift the county seat from Holmesville to Baxley, and the city incorporated in 1875. The 2020 Census counted 4,942 residents.

ATTRBubba73 / CC BY-SA 4.0

Rail was only the first layer. Timber rafting and naval stores drove early commerce, while a sweet-potato plant trade gave Baxley a surprising national reach during the 1910s and 1920s. In 1933, the local Kiwanis Club sent more than a million plants toward Atlanta during the Depression. The Baxley News Banner traces its newspaper history to 1884, another sign of the city's long county-seat role. Modern Baxley keeps one foot in that older downtown and one along the Altamaha River. Main Street work has focused on historic business buildings, while Plant Hatch sits north of town on the river and began commercial operation in 1975 and 1979 for its two units. The result is a place with a courthouse-town center, a railroad origin, and an industrial river edge—an easy combination to miss if you read Baxley as a highway stop.