Millen, GA

Millen is the Jenkins County seat on the east side of the Ogeechee River, and the railroad is the reason the town is there. Settlers arrived around 1835, when the place was called “79,” a reference to its distance from Savannah. In 1854, the Central of Georgia Railway and Georgia Railroad connected at the site, which became Millen’s Junction after railroad superintendent McPherson B. Millen. During the Civil War, Camp Lawton was built at nearby Magnolia Springs, using the springs and railroad access. Today the Downtown Millen Historic District and Magnolia Springs State Park carry the two big threads: railroad town and wartime landscape.