Perry, Ga., and the Southern Heartland
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MotorHome, March 2008
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Ever since Creek Indians traversed nearby trade routes, the area around present-day Perry, Ga., has served as a crossroads. After Europeans settled the area, stagecoaches and railroads brought travelers to the town. Today, the confluence of three major highways, plus the impressive Georgia National Fairgrounds and Agricenter, makes Perry an ideal base for travelers exploring Georgia's heartland.
The Perry Welcome Center, located near the 1,100-acre fairgrounds and site of The Rally 2008, offers abundant information about Perry and the surrounding travel region. Armed with Welcome Center literature and advice, you can point yourself in any direction and venture into Georgia's rich Southern heritage.
Perry itself is a quintessential Georgia town where you can walk the historic tour, seek treasures in the quaint shopping area and catch afternoon tea at The Front Porch Tea Room. Later, just as generations of locals and tourists have, you can enjoy Southern cooking and charm at the 1925 New Perry Hotel.
To the west and south of Perry, visitors can explore the Andersonville Trail, which passes cotton fields and pecan orchards along State Highway 49 to the town of Andersonville. Just outside of town is the Andersonville National Historic Site, which is home to Camp Sumter, the notorious Civil War prison.
The Confederates built the outdoor prison in February 1864 with the intention of holding 10,000 Union prisoners. By August, the 26 1/2-acre site confined more than 32,000 soldiers at a time, with almost 13,000 eventually dying from disease and mistreatment. Today, visitors can tour the picturesque grounds, walking among the monuments, sections of reconstructed stockade and dramatic rows of white headstones in the national cemetery.
The historic site also hosts the inspiring National Prisoner of War Museum, which is dedicated to the servicemen and women of the United States who have endured enemy captivity. The museum presents poignant exhibits -- including artifacts, videos and photos -- that honor the courage and hardships of POWs from the American Revolution through the war in Iraq.
Beyond Andersonville, you'll come to the charming little town of Plains -- a place made famous 30 years ago as the home of President Jimmy Carter. This tranquil town, and its classic American story of local boy rising to the nation's highest office, attracts many travelers regardless of their political orientation. Carter still resides in Plains and visitors sometimes catch a glimpse of him while they tour the town or attend the periodic Sunday school class he teaches at Maranatha Baptist Church.
The Plains High School, where Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter received their public schooling, serves as the visitor center and museum for the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site. Once you've visited the school, you can tour the town's 1888 train depot, which doubled as the 1976 Presidential Campaign Headquarters, and Jimmy Carter's boyhood home, located on a nearby farm where the Carter family grew cotton, peanuts and sugar cane.
If you'd like to view the area's scenery and towns without driving, then check out the availability of the SAM Shortline Excursion Train, which begins in Cordele, 35 miles south of Perry, and ends practically in front of Carter's boyhood home.
After Plains, more of Georgia's Southern legacy awaits by heading 25 miles north of Perry to the historic city of Macon. The city marks the beginning of Georgia's Antebellum Trail -- a 100-mile route from Macon to Athens that meanders through seven communities that escaped destruction during the Union Army's march through Georgia during the Civil War.
In Macon, you can tour classic antebellum structures, such as the Hay House and the Cannonball House. The Hay House, completed in 1860 and nicknamed “The Palace of the South,” is a stunning 18,000-square-foot Italian Renaissance Revival mansion. The Cannonball House is an 1853 Greek Revival mansion, which features fine period furnishings and the unexploded shell that smashed through the parlor during a Union attack.
In addition to architecture, Macon offers a vibrant cultural heritage. The Georgia Music Hall of Fame honors the state's contemporary music traditions and showcases performers such as Little Richard, The Allman Brothers, Otis Redding and Ray Charles. And visitors can explore African-American heritage at the Tubman Museum, which features the South's largest museum celebrating the significant achievements of African-American artists, inventors and leaders.
Between visits to Macon's many attractions, you can stroll downtown boulevards lined with thousands of Yoshino cherry trees and dine alfresco at Southern-style cafes.
East of Perry, you can head to the nearby town of Warner Robins, where visitors can immerse themselves in the noble history of the U.S. Air Force. As with much of the South, Georgia enjoys a proud military tradition, and the Robins Air Force Base serves as the area's largest employer.
At the base, you'll discover the Museum of Aviation -- one of the nation's largest aerospace museums. Its expansive 51-acre site delivers eye candy for aviation enthusiasts, showcasing more than 100 aircraft and hundreds of fascinating aviation-related exhibits. You'll see aircraft ranging from an 1896 Chanute Glider, to the Flying Tiger's shark-nosed P-40, to the world's fastest aircraft -- the SR-71 Blackbird. In addition, the museum hosts the largest exhibit on the inspiring Tuskegee Airmen and an IMAX aviation theater.
Warner Robins also serves as the southern origin of the Peach Blossom Trail, which heads back through Perry then north to Atlanta, where more than 50 streets contain Peachtree in their name, including the famous Peachtree Street. If the area's pink and white peach blossoms are in bloom, you'll want to drive the trail. Georgia isn't known as the Peach State for nothing. The trail skirts orchards in an area populated with 1.6 million peach trees.
Beyond its immediate environs, Perry also serves as a crossroads to farther regions. You can travel three hours north to the Georgia mountains, with nearby stops in Atlanta and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Or you can venture three hours along the Golden Isles Parkway to the scenic and tranquil Georgia coast, or three hours south to the Gulf of Mexico. But regardless of your next destination, you'll depart with excellent experiences and images of the rich Southern heritage of Georgia's heartland.
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Macon's Hay House, "The Palace of the South"
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Plains, Ga., the home of former
U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
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Andersonville National Historic Site
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Andersonville National Historic Site monuments
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The Museum of Aviation
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