McRae-Helena is a city in south-central Georgia that serves as the seat of Telfair County. It was created on January 1, 2015, when the adjacent cities of McRae and Helena merged into a single municipality, making it the largest city in the county. The area sits within Georgia's Coastal Plain region, drained by the Little Ocmulgee River, which passes just north of town. The community's origins are bound to the railroad. During the late 1860s, construction of the Macon and Brunswick Railroad cut through eastern Telfair County, and a depot known as Station No. 11 became the nucleus of what grew into McRae. In 1871 the county seat moved from Jacksonville to McRae, cementing the town's role as the county's political and economic center. Lumber, agriculture, and the railroad sustained the area through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the county government and related services remain central employers today. The merger of McRae and Helena consolidated two towns that had long functioned as neighbors, with McRae carrying the county seat and commercial core and Helena adding residential and rail-oriented sections. The combined city retains a small-town, county-seat character built around the courthouse, churches, and family-owned businesses. McRae-Helena is perhaps best known regionally for Little Ocmulgee State Park and Lodge, a CCC-built preserve just north of town that brings visitors for golf, fishing, and lakeside stays. It is a place suited to those seeking an unhurried, lower-cost way of life in rural Georgia, with the state's larger cities within a manageable drive but far from the daily rhythm of the town.