Gordon sits in central Georgia's Wilkinson County, on the Oconee River about twenty miles east of Macon and near the former state capital of Milledgeville. The city covers roughly five square miles at the junction of Georgia State Routes 18 and 243, and its 2020 census population was 1,783. Its position places it squarely within the Kaolin Belt, the band of counties stretching across middle Georgia that holds some of the world's richest deposits of kaolin clay. The town traces its founding to the railroad. In 1843 the Central of Georgia Railway established a depot here, and the community was named for William Washington Gordon, the Savannah lawyer and legislator who served as the railroad's first president and oversaw its construction from the coast into the interior. During the Civil War, Gordon became a waypoint in Union General William T. Sherman's March to the Sea; the Right Wing of Sherman's army crossed the Oconee River near here at Ball's Ferry, and the town's evacuation is commemorated by a Georgia historical marker. Kaolin remains the economic backbone. The white clay mined and processed across Wilkinson County is used in paper, paint, ceramics, and other products, and major industrial facilities, including plants operated by BASF, anchor local employment. Agriculture and forestry round out the rural economy, and the county seat of Irwinton lies a short distance away. For residents, Gordon offers a small, quiet city with a walkable downtown, a single countywide school district, and direct highway access to Macon and Milledgeville. Its combination of a working-industry economy, Civil War history, and Oconee River setting gives the community a grounded, distinctly middle-Georgia character.