Ideal, GA

Ideal is a city in Macon County, Georgia, United States. The 2020 census counted 407 residents. The town was originally named "Joetown", but when two railroad executives stopped in the town, one proclaimed it an "ideal" place for a railroad station, and the other declared he'd just named it. The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Ideal as a town in 1906. A newcomer can read Ideal through the overlap of its older landmarks, surrounding geography, and current places. For a newcomer, Ideal comes into focus through those concrete links among its past, landscape, and current routines. Georgia State Route 90 passes through the center of town, leading southeast 10 miles to Oglethorpe, the county seat, and northwest 8 miles to Rupert. Ideal resides at the confluence of Whitewater and Cedar creeks, two spring-fed tributaries of the Flint River.