Columbus, GA, near the Alabama border, is a city with many cultural, historic and economic positives. Founded by the state legislature in 1828, the year of the Dahlonega gold rush, Columbus is named for Chirstopher Columbus. The site chosen on the Chattahoochee River is at the end of the last navigable spot on the river, a position that made Columbus an important commercial town from its earliest years. Cotton was shipped down the river from this point to New Orleans and ultimately to Liverpool, England. Manufacturing, especially textile mills, was important early in the city's history.


The river was so vital to the Confederacy during the Civil War that the Confederate government had a shipyard here for building its navy, whose exploits are documented in the National Civil War Naval Museum, located in Columbus. While the river has waned in importance as a commercial highway, the city's riverfront district has a new significance, sparking a revival of the downtown commercial district, as it's packed with restaurants, retail shops, and parks. Chattahoochee RiverWalk, a 15-hile park that runs along the river, extends from Uptown to the Infantry Museum at Ft. Benning, housing one of the nation's largest collections of military art and artifacts. .


Columbus today is home to the state's official theater, the Springer Opera House, named for the Alsace, France, immigrant who raised the capital for its construction in 1871. Francis Joseph Springer would be proud to see how beautifully his theater has been restored, the result of a $12 million project completed in 1999.


Like the restored Springer, many of Columbus's cultural institutions are the result of public-private partnerships. The Columbus Challenge has raised more than $100 million to fund such projects, including not only the Springer restoration but also to construct the RiverCenter for the Performing Arts and many more cultural institutions.


With a city-county population of about 187,000, Columbus, now merged in a consolidated government with Muscogee County, is home to Ft. Benning, one of the U.S. Army's most important installations and the city's largest employer with some 40,000 workers. Other large employers include insurance industry giant AFLAC, headquartered in Columbus, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia. Also headquartered in Columbus is Synovus, founded in 1880 and today a $21 billion financial services firm that made Fortune magazine's 2003 list of "Best Companies to Work For." Pratt & Whitney, a leading designer and builder of turbine engines, has a major unit in Columbus.


. Average household income hovers around $51,000, with per capita income at just under $20,000. A well educated community, with more than 25% of its work force employed in professional, executive or managerial positions, Columbus has the kind of demographics that make the business and the arts flourish. The presence of a state-supported four-year academic institution, Columbus State University, helps to sustain the business-arts nexus.


. The Columbus Symphony Orchestra, composed of professional musicians, sometimes may be found playing in local high schools as it did on September 21, 2005, in the beautiful West High School auditorium. Focused on American art and the development and history of the Chattahoochee River Valley, the Columbus Museum of Art charges no admission, making it available to all residents no matter their economic circumstances.


Home to legendary blues songbird Gertrude Pridgett, better known as Ma Rainey (1886-1939), Columbus has long nurtured artistic talent. Her home still stands in Columbus. Not far away, the old Liberty Theater, now restored, hosted many famous musicians, among them Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. Another of Columbus' famous artists is author Carson McCullars, best known for Member of the Wedding and Reflecions in a Golden Eye, was born in Columbus.


Less well known among Columbus' famous residents is the man whose formula launched the most famous brand in the world: Dr. John S. Pemberton, a Civil War veteran and pharmacist, sold a headache formula to Asa Candler of Atlanta for less than $2,000. So what you say? Candler turned it into a product known today as Coca-Cola. Visitors may find Pemberton's home and apothecary on 7th St., along with other historic homes, in the Historic District at Heritage Corner.