Plains, city, Sumter county, southwest-central Georgia, U.S., 10 miles (16 km) west-southwest of Americus. A post office was established there in 1839, and when the railroad was built in 1885 several local settlements, including Magnolia Springs (or Village) and the Plains of Dura (named for the biblical plain near Babylon), regrouped to form Plains, which was incorporated in 1896. The city is at the centre of an agricultural region producing mainly peanuts (groundnuts). It became a tourist attraction in the late 1970s as the hometown of Jimmy Carter, 39th president of the United States; Carter returned there after completing his term in 1981. For decades he taught Sunday school lessons at the Maranatha Baptist Church, attracting attendees from around the country and across the globe. Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, established in 1987, preserves his home, boyhood farm, high school, and the depot that served as his 1976 presidential campaign headquarters. Pop. (2010) 776; (2020) 573.