Americus, GA Road Trips

Once known as the "Metropolis of Southwest Georgia", Americus was a city of prominence: it had the only privately financed railroad in the state, the first electric street car system, and a status as a cotton distribution center. What started as a town in 1859 became all this and a place for colleges, military installations, a World War II German POW camp, and a center of minor league baseball. Americus has been visited by everal notable people: Booker T Washington, Charles Lindbergh, FDR, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Americus has also been part and parcel to some of the darkest and brightest moments of humanity, namely through witness of the Andersonville prisoner of war camp where Union soldiers endured the harshest of elements in survival during the Civil War, and the interracial Koinonia farm and Habitat for Humanity, movements that sprung out of the Civil Rights era with a vision of harmony and spiritual partnership for all.

1 Andersonville National Historic Site, 760 POW Rd, ☏ +1 229-924-0343. 8AM-5PM. Museum: 9:30AM-4:30PM. Preserves Camp Sumter (also known as Andersonville Prison), a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp during the American Civil War. It includes the National Prisoner of War Museum, which offers two park films: one focused on Andersonville, the other on prisoners of war throughout American history. Free. (updated Dec 2025) 2 Koinonia Farm, 1324 GA-49, ☏ +1 229-924-0391, [email protected]. A historical intentional community built on inclusiveness that emerged during the Civil Rights era underscoring the ability for all races and creeds to be able to work together and out of which sprung the Habitat for Humanity organization. Open for visits, retreats, or internships. (updated Dec 2025) 3 Lindbergh First Solo Flight Monument, 223 Airport Rd (at Jimmy Carter Regional Airport). Statue commemorating where Charles Lindbergh made his first solo flight. (updated Nov 2021)

1 Windsor Hotel Ascend Collection, 125 W Lamar St, ☏ +1 229-924-1555. This one is special because it was built as the Windsor Hotel in 1892 in Queen Anne style and has had such dignitaries as Vice-President Thomas Marshall and Franklin Delano Roosevelt speak there. (updated Mar 2025)

Americus is about an hour southeast of Columbus or an hour north of Albany, by car.