Kingsland sits on the Georgia mainland in Camden County, inland from Cumberland Island and west of St. Marys, close to the St. Marys River and the Florida line. It exists because of a railroad: the line came across William King’s property in 1893, King laid the town out, and it incorporated in 1908.
The town still gathers around that original center. Downtown is two miles off I-95 Exit 3 on US 17, and the state promotes it as the Kingsland Royal District, a run of shops and restaurants with brick sidewalks and a street clock. The Kingsland Commercial Historic District, around South Lee Street between King and William, went on the National Register in March 1994.
Inside that district, the Thiokol Memorial Museum at 115 South Lee Street commemorates the workers at the Woodbine Thiokol plant and documents the explosion there in February 1971. A few streets away, Kingsland Veterans Memorial Park at West King Avenue and South Orange Edwards Boulevard carries service memorial walls and statues.
What drives the town now is the base next door. Camden County’s joint land use study identifies Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay as its largest employer. The base sits in unincorporated Camden County next to St. Marys rather than in Kingsland, but the city’s eastern limits run within two miles of the base boundary, so Kingsland is where a great many of those households live. Camden County’s 2021 employer table names Kings Bay, the Trident Refit Facility, the Camden County School System, Southeast Georgia Health Systems, Lockheed Missiles and Space, the Walmart Supercenter and the City of Kingsland.
The town has grown with it. The Census counted 18,337 residents and 7,302 housing units in 2020, and the estimate for July 2025 was 21,299, sixteen percent above the count. Camden County School District serves the city and runs Kingsland Elementary, and Jacksonville International is the closest major airport, thirty miles by road from the county’s reference point at Exit 7, against thirty-four to Brunswick Golden Isles.
Sourced: railroad arrival, town layout and 1908 incorporation, Camden County historical account. Population and housing units, U.S. Census Bureau 2020 count and Vintage 2025 estimate. Historic district listing March 17 1994, reference 94000186, National Park Service. Royal District, museum and memorial park, Georgia state tourism and the City. Base proximity and employer table, Camden County joint land use study and its 2021 employer table, which is countywide and historical rather than current. Airport comparison, Camden County’s January 2024 airport study, measured from Exit 7 rather than downtown.