Plains, a small Sumter County town in southwest Georgia, is located approximately nine miles west of Americus and thirty-seven miles north of Albany. Situated in the northern part of Georgia’s peanut belt, this farming community’s main crops are corn, cotton, peanuts, and soybeans, although its main industry is tourism. The town is well known as the hometown of U.S. president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jimmy Carter. According to the 2020 U.S. census, the population of Plains was 573.

Plains
Plains
Courtesy of Explore Georgia.

Plains was founded in 1827 after federal authorities forced out Creek Indians under the Treaty of Washington, and was located one mile north of its present site. The surrounding land is flat, and Plains was originally called the Plains of Dura, after the biblical place.

In 1884 a thirty-seven-mile railroad connecting Americus, Preston, and Lumpkin, was built as a more convenient way for getting cotton to market. Plains moved one mile south to a site on the newly built railroad in 1885. That same year, the small town’s business section burgeoned, but Plains was not officially incorporated until 1896. A railroad depot station was built in 1888.

Historic Plains
Historic Plains
Courtesy of Georgia Archives.

Like most farming communities in the South, Plains subsisted mainly on cotton production until 1915, when farmers were forced to find another crash crop after the boll weevil infestation substantially reduced cotton acreage. Largely due to the work of George Washington Carver, an African American agricultural scientist who taught at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, there was a large shift toward peanut farming in Georgia. Plains is still known for its peanut production, which is celebrated in the annual Plains Peanut Festival held each fall.

In addition to the peanut industry, Plains was at one time recognized for its prestigious medical community. In the early 1900s three doctors who were also brothers, Samuel Paul Wise, Bowman J. Wise, and Burr Thaddeus Wise, a pioneer in surgery and radium therapy, established the first hospital in town, Wise Sanitarium, known then as the “Mayo Clinic of the South.” Jimmy Carter was born in the hospital in 1924, and his mother, Lillian Carter, worked there as a registered nurse. Another Plains physician, Joseph Colquitt Logan, was the first doctor to treat and cure a case of Rocky Mountain spotted fever.

Carter Boyhood Farm
Carter Boyhood Farm
Photograph from National Park Service

Plains became famous in 1976 when Carter ran his presidential campaign from the historic depot. Carter was raised in Plains, where as a boy he sold the peanuts harvested on his family’s farm to the townspeople. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, returned to Plains at the end of his presidential term in 1981. Visitors to Plains can tour the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, which includes President Carter’s boyhood farm, his high school, and the railroad depot, all managed by the National Park Service.

Another area attraction is the SAM Shortline Excursion Train. This historic train line, which created a direct route between Savannah, Georgia, and Montgomery, Alabama, by way of Americus, dates back to 1888. Visitors can ride the train through the countryside of southwest Georgia between Cordele and Archery. Tourists can also visit the Plains Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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Plains

Plains

Downtown Plains is part of the attraction for tourists visiting the area. Tourism is the main industry for Plains today, but the area has primarily been a farming community for most of its history.

Courtesy of Explore Georgia, Photograph by Ralph Daniel.

Historic Plains

Historic Plains

This historic postcard shows Main Street in downtown Plains in 1905. At the time, cotton farming was the largest local enterprise.

Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia, #sum135a.

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Carter Boyhood Farm

Carter Boyhood Farm

Jimmy Carter's boyhood home and farm in Plains, where the family grew peanuts, are managed today by the National Park Service.

Photograph from National Park Service

Maranatha Baptist Church

Maranatha Baptist Church

In Plains Jimmy Carter teaches Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church, where a large crowd usuallly gathers to attend the class.

Courtesy of National Park Service