Emergency Biohazard Cleanup Near Pine Forest Baxley, GA

Baxley is a city and the county seat of Appling County in the wiregrass region of southeastern Georgia.

Baxley grew up around the Macon and Brunswick Railroad, completed through Appling County in 1870, where its depot was originally known simply as Station Number 7.

The town is named for Wilson Baxley, a North Carolinian who arrived in Appling County in the 1820s and sold the railroad a right-of-way near his store; voters then moved the county seat from Holmesville to Baxley, and the legislature incorporated the town in 1875.

Baxley's early economy rested on timber rafting and the naval stores industry, and Appling County became a center of turpentine and resin production before tobacco farming gained favor in the late 1920s.

Baxley's population was 4,942 at the 2020 census according to the New Georgia Encyclopedia, up from 4,400 in 2010, and at the 2000 census the city had 4,150 people in 1,567 households.

Baxley covers about 8.4 square miles in southeastern Georgia, west of Savannah.

The Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Power Plant, located north of Baxley on U.S. Route 1 along the Altamaha River, is the area's largest employer and was Georgia's first nuclear power plant, with Unit 1 entering service in 1975.

Plant Hatch's federal operating licenses have been renewed to run Unit 1 through 2054 and Unit 2 through 2058 — up to 80 years of operation for each reactor.

Appling County, which Baxley serves as seat, had 18,444 residents at the 2020 census, with Baxley as its most populous community.

International Forest Products Limited operates a sawmill in Baxley employing more than 50 people, continuing the city's long timber heritage.