Vidalia Map
Vidalia,(officially pron. vy-DALE-yah, /va?de?lj?/ referred to as vy-DAY-yuh, /va?de?j?/ by most residents) is a city in Toombs and very slightly into Montgomery counties in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 10,491. It is the largest city in Toombs, but is not the county seat. Like so many towns in the region, it grew up around a train depot that serviced farmers in the area who grew such crops as pecans and tobacco. The famous sweet onions were not an important crop until much later.
Although it has never been officially confirmed, it is believed by locals that the 1996 song Vidalia alludes to the Vidalia Sweet Onion crop with its lyrics "...sweet Vidalia, You always gotta make me cry!" While uncertainty remains about the song, Vidalia sweet onions have recently made a name for the town through national media and the Onions and Ogres advertisement campaign which features the cartoon ogre Shrek.
Vidalia is the principal city of the Vidalia Micropolitan Statistical Area, a micropolitan area that covers Montgomery and Toombs counties and had a combined population of 34,337 at the 2000 census.
Nearby cities include Uvalda, Soperton, Glenwood, Cobbtown, Collins.