Columbus, Georgia is situated on the fall line of the Chattahoochee River, at the western border of the state, 95 miles southwest of Atlanta. It was founded in 1828 as a planned city, and in its early days was a rough and tumble town.
The first industry was the shipping of cotton by steamer on the river, from Columbus to the Gulf of Mexico. In the 1840s mills sprang up along the Chattahoochee to manufacture cotton cloth. Eventually, in the 1970s, Columbus became the denim-producing capital of the world. Nineteenth century Columbus also had a major iron works which built gunboats during the Civil War, and made one of the first ice-making machines.
In World War I the War Department started a "School of Musketry" here which became Fort Benning, the largest U.S. Army Infantry Center and school in the world. Columbus has changed with the times. As the industrial age diminished, the city adopted technology and service industries--particularly bank card processing and life/health insurance businesses. The citizens, the business community and the local government are working together to develop Columbus as a modern city and a desirable place for families to live and raise their children.
Among the 1996 Olympic games, Columbus hosted the Fast Pitch Softball venue. The community boasts two major educational institutions: Columbus State University, a unit of the University System of Georgia, and Columbus Technical College. For recreation, Columbus offers an 11.5 mile River Walk, state-of-the-art softball and soccer fields, the Cottonmouth Hockey Team and the Red Stixx Baseball Team.
The entertainment and cultural needs of the city are well served by a new civic auditorium that brings in well known acts; the Columbus Museum; the River Center, a performing arts complex that is home to the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and Columbus State University's Music Department; the restored Springer Opera House and Liberty Theater, and the Port Columbus Civil War Naval Center.
Among its native sons and daughters, Columbus claims noted author Carson McCullers; Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Mother of the Blues; renown Georgia architect Philip Trammell Shutze; Eugene Bullard, the world's first black combat pilot in World War I; Dr. Pemberton who developed the formula for Coca Cola; and Hollywood screenwriter Nunnally Johnson, who wrote numerous screenplays, including the one for "The Grapes of Wrath." Two cemeteries, Linwood and Porterdale, located in Columbus, are on the National Historic Register.
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