Discover how Alma and Bacon County, Georgia, can be your “One Place to Live, Work, Play” as you explore what we have to offer in Education, Healthcare, Outdoor Recreation, and Attractions. Add our friendly Southern atmosphere, progressive leadership, warm climate, and boundless opportunity, and you'll soon ask yourself why you would choose anywhere else.
Quality of Life
Education & Training
The Bacon County School System is the first step in a child’s future success in Alma and Bacon County, Georgia. Our K-12 schools consistently rank high in state and national ratings. The Bacon County School System is committed to academic success for every child and the development of good character in all, with intense concentration on school completion and graduation.
Businesses searching for an area where prospective employees can gain valuable skills at nearby higher educational facilities will find plenty of options less than two hours from Bacon County. Among these options are:
- Coastal Pines Technical College– Alma (also campuses in Waycross, Baxley, Jesup, Hazlehurst, Camden County and the Golden Isles)
- South Georgia State College– Douglas & Waycross (24 miles)
- Wiregrass Georgia Technical College– Douglas & Pearson (24 miles)
- Brewton-Parker College– Mount Vernon (45 miles)
- Southeastern Technical College– Vidalia (51 miles)
- Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College – Tifton (63 miles)
- Valdosta State University – Valdosta (70 miles)
- College of Coastal Georgia– Brunswick (75 miles)
- Georgia Southern University – Statesboro (75 miles)
- East Georgia State College – Swainsboro (75 miles)
Many students in the Bacon County School System take advantage of the state's Move On When Ready program. This program enables high school students to earn dual high school and college credits through Coastal Pines Technical College at no cost to the students or their families, thus removing obstacles and encouraging students to pursue higher education. The program has 27 guaranteed courses that will transfer into any of the state colleges in Georgia. In a recent year, 14.4% of Bacon County high school students were enrolled in the program.
Healthcare
Bacon County Hospital and Health System offers the latest in medical technology in a caring, supportive environment. The hospital and health system are comprised of the 25-bed, Joint Commission-accredited general, acute care hospital that provides adult and pediatric medical care, surgery, and obstetrics; the 88-bed Twin Oaks Convalescent Center; the Bacon County Community Care Center which offers primary level family care, and community and industrial programs; the ABC Child Development Center; the Sleep Center; Nicholls Family Healthcare; and the South Georgia Physicians Group.
In the past three years, Bacon County Hospital and Health System has been recognized with the:
- Georgia Hospital Association Hospital Heroes Award (2017)
- Georgia Hospital Association Workers Compensation Award (2015 & 2016)
- Women's Choice Award (2015 & 2016)
- Georgia Hospital Association Chairman's Award (2016)
- American Health Care Association Bronze Award (2016)
- 5 Stars for the Hospital (2015)
- 4 Stars for the Nursing Home (2015)
- 3 Stars for the Daycare (2015) (3 is the highest)
- Joint Commission Golden Key Award (2015)
Our area is also home to professionals offering the full range of healthcare services.
Outdoor Recreation
Beautiful, natural surroundings give Bacon County, Georgia a relaxed pace of life. Lush with trees and teeming with wildlife, Bacon County's local hunting for deer, quail and dove is some of the finest in the state, and freshwater fishing is found only five minutes away in any direction. Bacon County is also easily accessible to General Coffee State Park, the golf course at Alma's own Blueberry Plantation Inn & Country Club, and the Bacon County Recreation Department with its competition-ready softball/baseball fields, picnic area, playground, tennis courts, and nature trail. The one-mile clay outdoor motocross track at Alma MX Park will satisfy the thrill-seeker in you.
Within 30 minutes of Alma and Bacon County, several recreational adventures await – canoeing the Altamaha River, camping at Laura Walker State Park in Waycross, paddling through the Okefenokee Swamp – and the Atlantic Ocean beaches of Georgia's Golden Isles are only an hour and half away.
Area Attractions
Alma's Goldwasswer Park serves as a center for community activities and festivals during the year, including the annual Georgia Blueberry Festival in June, possibly Bacon County's biggest attraction. The two-day festival celebrates everything blueberry, with pie eating contests, pancakes, music, dancing, arts and crafts, and more.
Other days of the year, catch a play, a first run movie, beauty pageant, dance recital, or speaker at the Bacon Theatre in the heart of downtown Alma. Or you can pay your respects at the Veterans Memorial Wall and get a photo of the military helicopter on display.
The Bacon County Courthouse, the Alma Depot, and the Rabinowitz Building in downtown Alma are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The courthouse, built in 1919, still serves residents. Other buildings and places of interest include the Old Dixon Hotel and the Camp Ground Methodist Church, dating from the early 1800s.
The Alma/Bacon County Welcome Center is located in a renovated school that was built in 1934 and offers a reflection of time gone by photos and conversation. It offers public restrooms, sitting area for travelers and informational brochures from around the state.The Welcome Center serves the community by welcoming newcomers, supporting residents in transition and providing information on the community's activities.