Between Albany And Columbus Is Vintage Architecture, Antiques, And U-Pick Farms Offered In A Tiny Georgia Town

Georgia on your mind? It's peak peach season in the Peach State, and chances are you might want to pick your own juicy fruit off the branch or just find some peace and quiet away from the summer hustle and bustle of the city. The town of Sasser offers just what you need for a rural Georgia escape. 

If you're flying in from out of town, you'll likely need to stop in Atlanta before continuing on to Southwest Georgia Regional Airport in Albany, located about a half hour drive from Sasser. From there, you can rent a car to make your way to the small town of 267 residents. Parts of the city appear frozen in time with architectural marvels covering a wide range of styles and time periods. There aren't any hotels in town, though, so you'll have to drive about 10 minutes to neighboring Dawson for the night. 

Whether you're looking for fresh fruit, some antique furniture, or postcard-perfect vintage architecture, chances are you won't leave Sasser disappointed. 

No matter what time of year you're passing through Sasser, there's something for the whole family to enjoy at Mark's Melon Patch, a luscious fruit farm doubling as the U-pick capital of the area. It sits just outside the center of town and is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week. On any given day, you can stop in and pick your own strawberries for the best warm-weather snack or sweet treat. Beyond ubiquitous produce like strawberries, watermelon, and tomatoes, shoppers can pick up local specialties like peaches, okra, and Vidalia onions and various spreads like fruit preserves, syrups, and barbecue sauces, and even pickled vegetables for a sour fix. Salty snack fiends will love the peanuts and pecans for sale, including a steaming bag of boiled peanuts for the perfect road bites. It's no surprise that peanuts are sold in abundance here; President Jimmy Carter, who famously owned a peanut farm, is from the town of Plains, about a half-hour drive away.  

Visiting Mark's Melon Patch in the fall is just as fun for everyone. Every September and October, the pumpkin patch on site welcomes visitors of all ages. The kids will love getting lost in the enormous corn maze, complete with two-and-a-half miles of trails through the five-acre labyrinth. Cuddle up with your loved ones and get into the fall spirit on a hayride through the pumpkin patch every week in October. 

Beyond food and fun, you'll even be able to go home with some shiny souvenirs. Mark's Treasure Mine offers visitors of all ages a family-friendly gem mining adventure here in Georgia's Lower Coastal Plain. 

Some might not think of a small town like Sasser as a hotspot for antique furniture. Up until late 2022, the Sasser Flea Market and Antique Mall welcomed customers from across the region as they hunted for the most unique household items. Prior to its closing, it hosted sellers' booths as well as its own antiques brought in from across the Eastern Seaboard. Now, antiquing in Sasser can be found in the center of town at A&B Antiques, which operates from 11:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Saturday. Alternatively, you can drive over to Dawson and take your pick from a vast collection of trinkets and tchotchkes at Sadie Bee's Vendors, Vintage, and Variety, open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays.

Sasser is bursting with old-school charm as buildings dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s populate the area. Sasser First Baptist Church and the now-closed Sasser United Methodist Church were built in the classic Gothic Revival style. Macedonia Primitive Baptist Church built its Romanesque Revival-style building in 1916. Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church is an important civil rights site in this often-overlooked Southern city. The historically Black church was founded by freedmen and their descendants in 1896; arsonists set fire to the historic building in 1962 at the height of the civil rights movement. 

Aside from churches, you can mosey through the small downtown area and appreciate the timeless red brick buildings on Main Street. The town hall occupies a small storefront space next door to the Sasser Museum and Historical Society. Train enthusiasts might enjoy the now-defunct railroad tracks through the center of town that were converted into a trail in 1997.