Birthplace of Robert Winship Woodruff

Columbus, GA

As Columbus grew into a Chattahoochee River industrial city, this 1902 building housed a succession of food producers — candy makers, syrup refiners, and a hosiery mill — and later the Sol Loeb wholesale grocery firm. Loeb was among the first customers of the Wrigley chewing-gum company and a founding member of the local telephone exchange.

Dougherty County, GA

This sign marks a community named in honor of Major General William Pendleton Thompson Hill, who served as the Marine Corps' Quartermaster General from 1944 to 1955. That decade spanned the final years of World War II and the Korean War, an era when the Corps expanded and modernized rapidly and its supply operations had to keep pace with Marines fighting across the Pacific and in Korea. As Quartermaster General, an officer in that post was responsible for equipping, clothing, and provisioning the force — the unglamorous logistical work that keeps an expeditionary military in the field.

Jasper County, GA

A mile from this spot in 1823, Jasper County produced Benjamin Harvey Hill, a lawyer whose silver tongue would carry him into the U.S. Senate and the front rank of Confederate politics. Though he had argued against secession, Hill became one of Jefferson Davis's ablest defenders, and after the war he pressed for the withdrawal of Federal troops from the South. He is remembered as an early voice for a "New South" built on industry rather than cotton alone.

Atlanta, GA

On this Atlanta corner in May 1886, Jacobs' Pharmacy poured the first five-cent glass of Coca-Cola, a syrup concocted by local pharmacist John Pemberton. Businessman Asa Candler bought the rights and incorporated The Coca-Cola Company in 1892, turning a soda-fountain novelty into a national brand. Under later leaders like Robert Woodruff, it grew into one of the most recognized products on earth.