Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park

The Peach State may have been the fourth to ratify the constitution in 1788, but its human occupation dates back at least 17,000 years—when the original Mississippian people arrived after the last Ice Age and occupied the area for millenia. The mounds they built, which are currently a national historic site that includes a distinctive spiral mound, a restored Earth Lodge where tribal meetings occurred, and a labyrinth of walking trails, are set to become America’s 64th National Park and Georgia’s first. To honor the area’s indigenous past, the city of Macon in March added bilingual street names in Muscogee and English, and the park itself will be managed by both the National Park Service and the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, whose ancestors lived here before being displaced to Oklahoma in 1836. This year will also see the opening of Macon’s Otis Redding Foundation, developed for young musicians and featuring a music lab, outdoor amphitheater, and studios that draw on the town’s musical greats including Redding, the Allman Brothers, the Marshall Tucker Band, and Little Richard. Visitors can also cut loose on the city’s Macon Bacon Trail, where they can sample miso corn-and-bacon fritters and toast the late former President (and one-time Georgia peanut farmer) Jimmy Carter by slurping a bacon-topped banana-and-peanut butter milkshake named in his honor.