When you're walking along McCrackin Street, the main thoroughfare through tiny Juliette, Georgia, you may feel like you've left the modern world behind and stepped onto a movie set. In a way, you have. This town without traffic lights (because there's no traffic) served as the set of a major Hollywood production in the early 1990s, which in turn served as a rebirth to this community forgotten by time. There's not much to do in Juliette proper, but some notable sights are close by. And the city of Macon with its cherry trees, historic architecture, soul food and rich musical heritage is only 20 minutes to the south.
See Famous Movie Sites
- Juliette is perhaps most well-known in the modern age as a primary filming location for the hit 1991 movie "Fried Green Tomatoes." The building that served as the Whistle Stop Cafe in the film still stands on McCrackin Street. It served as a general store for decades. Today, it's a restaurant called -- you guessed it -- the Whistle Stop Cafe, serving up fried green tomatoes and other Southern delicacies to tourists and locals. Fans of the film may also recognize other spots in town used in the movie.
Tour a Historic Plantation
- A few miles down a rural two-lane highway outside of Juliette, the Jarrell Plantation Historic Site is well-worth a visit for history buffs. Don't expect to see a Grecian white-columned mansion here. Jarrell is a rare surviving example of a middle-class plantation from the antebellum era, with a modest wooden house and outbuildings surrounded by fields. Costumed guides working with period equipment help give a feel for what 19th century farm life was like for most people. Jarrell Plantation is open only Thursday through Sunday each week.
Fish on the Lake
- Lake Juliette south of town is popular with anglers. In fact, fishing is the only thing you're allowed to do on this lake owned by Georgia Power. No swimming, no power boating, no water skiing or any other kind of water recreation is allowed. This likely has something to do with the fact that one of the country's largest coal-fired power plants is adjacent to the lake, with cooling towers and smokestacks looming like skyscrapers above its pine-forested shores. While the sport fishing is good on Lake Juliette, it might be in the best interest of anglers to catch and release the fish rather than cook it, since many residents claim their drinking water is contaminated by toxic waste from the plant, according to a 2012 report by CNN.
Visit State Parks
- Two Georgia State Parks are within a half-hour drive of Juliette. High Falls State Park is just off of Interstate 75, and Indian Springs State Park is close to U.S. 23. To view a long cascading waterfall -- a rarity in these parts -- and do some hiking in the woods, head to High Falls. For a good dose of Native American history, visit Indian Springs, where the the springs the Creek Indians used as a watering hole still bubble up from the ground and there's a museum containing artifacts from the time when this was the wild frontier. Campgrounds are available at both parks. Indian Springs also has cottages and High Falls lakeside yurts -- circular wood-framed tents with floors, furnishings and porches.
