AMERICUS

city, seat (1831) of Sumter county, southwest-central Georgia, U.S., on Muckalee Creek. Founded in 1830, it was named for Amerigo Vespucci or, legend says, for the merry cusses who were its first settlers. It is a trade and processing centre for agriculture, livestock, and timber, with some light industry, and kaolin and bauxite are mined nearby. To the northeast is Andersonville National Historic Site, where many Union soldiers who were prisoners of war died in a Confederate camp during the American Civil War (186165). The aviator Charles A. Lindbergh made his first solo flight at nearby Souther Field. Americus is the seat of Georgia Southwestern College (1906). Plains, the hometown of Jimmy Carter, former president of the United States, is 10 miles (16 km) west-southwest. Inc. 1855. Pop. (1994 est.) 17,409.