3 Best Sights in Plains, Southwest Georgia

Three different historic sites highlight the life and work of the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. You can visit the late-1880s railroad depot that once housed his 1976 presidential campaign headquarters. Vintage phones play recordings of Carter discussing his grassroots run for the White House. A couple of miles outside town on the Old Plains Highway is the 360-acre Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farm, where the Carter family grew cotton, peanuts, and corn; it has been restored to its original appearance before electricity was introduced. Period furniture fills the house, and the battery-powered radio plays Carter's reminiscences of growing up on a Depression-era farm. Plains High School, where the Carters attended school, is now a museum and the headquarters of the historic site. Start your visit here with a short orientation film, and pick up a self-guided tour book that explains the sites.

About 20 miles northeast of Plains, Andersonville National Historic Site is a solemn reminder of the Civil War's tragic toll. Andersonville, also known as Camp Sumter, was the war's deadliest prisoner-of-war camp. Some 13,000 Union prisoners died here, mostly from disease, neglect, and malnutrition. Photographs, artifacts, and high-tech exhibits detail not just the plight of Civil War prisoners but also prison life and conditions affecting all of America's 800,000 POWs since the Revolutionary War.

Known as "Georgia's Little Grand Canyon," Providence Canyon State Outdoor Recreation Area is actually made up of 16 canyons whose earthen walls display at least 43 different colors of sand. Providence Canyon is a favorite of geologists, photographers, and hikers, who enjoy peering over the canyon's rim and traversing its 10 miles of trails. It's located about 33 miles west of Plains.