Decatur County is located in the southwest corner of the state, adjoining Baker, Grady, Miller, Mitchell, and Seminole counties. One of the largest counties in Georgia at 596.8 square miles, Decatur shares its southern boundary with the Florida state line.
There are four incorporated cities in the county: Attapulgus, Bainbridge (the county seat), Brinson, and Climax (named after the fact that it is the highest point on the railroad between Savannah and the Chattahoochee River).
Decatur County was created by an act of the state legislature on December 8, 1823, and was carved out of the southern part of Early County from the border of Alabama to Irwin County. In 1823 Thomas County was formed out of an eastern portion of Decatur County and a western portion of Irwin County. Decatur County’s borders would remain the same throughout the rest of the nineteenth century. In 1905 Decatur County’s eastern border shifted again when part of the county was used to form Grady County. In 1920 a western portion of the county was separated from Decatur County to form Seminole County.
Spanish explorers had visited the area as early as 1540, and settlements were founded shortly thereafter. Decatur County was named after Commodore Stephen Decatur, a War of 1812 (1812-15) naval hero who may be best remembered for his response to an 1816 toast: “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.”
According to the 2020 U.S. census, the population of Decatur County is 29,367, an increase from the 2010 population of 27,842. The governing body is a six-member board of commissioners who serve staggered four-year terms elected from individual districts. The chairman is elected by the board from among their own members. The day-to-day operations are supervised by a county administrator.
Bainbridge College opened in 1973 and serves one Florida county and eight Georgia counties. The Gilbert H. Gragg–Decatur County Library is the headquarters of the Southwest Georgia Regional Library System and serves Decatur, Miller, and Seminole counties. It also is a subregional library for the blind and physically handicapped for sixteen southwest Georgia counties.
Decatur County sits atop the Floridan aquifer and is bisected by the Flint River. Lake Seminole, created by a dam at the Florida line built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, forms the southwestern boundary of the county. The lake is noted for bass fishing and is the site of an annual national tournament. Jack Wingate’s lodge and marina on the lake was made famous in the first Mark Trail comic strip, drawn by cartoonist Ed Dodd.
