South Georgia Spotlight: CORDELE, Georgia

There’s no better time to spotlight Cordele than the middle of summer. Crisp County’s seat ships more than 125 million watermelons to markets across the United States every year, a fact that has earned it the title of Watermelon Capital of the World and cemented its identity as one of South Georgia’s most recognizable agricultural communities. But Cordele’s story starts well before the watermelons.

Founded in 1888 at the junction of two major railroads, the city was named after Cordelia Hawkins, daughter of the president of the Savannah, Americus & Montgomery Railroad. The railroads brought people, commerce, and growth, and in 1905, when Crisp County was carved out of Dooly County, Cordele became its seat. The area even served as a brief temporary capital of Georgia in the final days of the Civil War, when Governor Joseph E. Brown fled to his family farmhouse to escape Sherman’s March to the Sea.

Today, Cordele is as much about the present as its past. The Cordele State Farmers Market is one of the largest of its kind in Georgia, a true hub for watermelon distribution throughout the Southeast that at the height of melon season runs from sunrise to nearly midnight. The annual Watermelon Days Festival (Georgia’s oldest festival) celebrates the farmers, growers, and buyers behind the industry every June with parades, live music, and more fresh-cut watermelon than you can reasonably finish.

Beyond the melons, Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park sits just west of the city on the banks of Lake Blackshear, offering a Military Museum, an 18-hole golf course, camping, boating, and the Lake Blackshear Resort. The SAM Shortline Excursion Train departs from historic downtown Cordele on trips through pecan groves and scenic South Georgia farmland, with stops in Americus and Plains. And for something you won’t find anywhere else, a decommissioned Titan I missile stands just off I-75, a 98-foot Cold War relic that’s become one of the most photographed roadside stops in the state.