Best Web Design in Dothan, AL (2026)

Web Design for Dothan, Alabama

Dothan is the commercial anchor of southeast Alabama's Wiregrass region, a former cotton town that reinvented itself around the peanut after the boll weevil wiped out cotton in the 1910s. Today the surrounding area grows roughly half the nation's peanuts, and giant decorated peanut sculptures dot the streets. It calls itself 'Circle City' after the beltway that rings it.

AppWT works with Dothan, AL businesses from Livonia, Michigan, mostly online and travelling as needed.

About Dothan

Also known as. Peanut Capital of the World. Circle City. Hub of the Wiregrass.

History. Settlers first called the site 'Poplar Head'; when that name was already registered with the post office, a local clergyman suggested the biblical town of Dothan from Genesis 37:17 ('Let us go to Dothan'). The town was officially incorporated on November 11, 1885. Boll weevil infestation destroyed the region's cotton crop in the 1910s, pushing farmers to peanuts, which became the economic mainstay. Dothan proclaimed itself the 'Peanut Capital of the World' in 1938, the same year the first National Peanut Festival was held (George Washington Carver, who developed hundreds of peanut uses, was an early festival speaker). Several sites are on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Dothan Opera House (1915), the Dixie Stand Pipe water tower (1897), and the Main Street Commercial District.

Local economy. Peanuts remain the agricultural mainstay; Dothan and its surrounding counties produce roughly half of the U.S. peanut crop, much of it processed locally. Health care is a leading sector; Southeast Alabama Medical Center (about 2,500 employees) and Flowers Hospital (about 1,100) are top employers. Manufacturing and energy anchor the industrial base: Michelin operates a tire plant, Southern Nuclear's Farley Nuclear Station employs hundreds, and Perdue Farms runs poultry processing. Dothan serves as the retail, medical, and commercial hub for the tri-state Wiregrass region spanning southeast Alabama, southwest Georgia, and the Florida Panhandle.

Culture and community. The National Peanut Festival each November is the region's signature event, drawing crowds reported up to 200,000. The Azalea-Dogwood Festival, celebrating the city's springtime blooms, has run since 1964 and includes an official Azalea-Dogwood Trail in the Garden District. Boiled peanuts are a regional food tradition (Troy University's Dothan campus even unveiled a boiled-peanut historical marker). Musical sons include Bobby Goldsboro (whose 'Honey' was one of 1968's biggest hits) and songwriter Buddy Buie, who wrote 'Spooky,' 'Stormy,' and 'Traces' and managed the Atlanta Rhythm Section. Barbecue festivals such as the Tri-State BBQ Festival and PorktoberQue are annual draws.

What makes Dothan distinct. Dothan claims the 'World's Smallest City Block,' a tiny triangle behind the Civic Center bounded by North Appletree, North College, and East Troy streets. The nickname 'Circle City' comes from Ross Clark Circle, a roughly 14-mile four-lane beltway built in 1957-58 that was among the first highways to completely encircle an American city. The 'Peanuts Around Town' public-art project scatters five-foot decorated peanut sculptures across the city. In 2008 Dothan's Reform congregation, Temple Emanu-El, drew national attention by offering Jewish families up to $50,000 to relocate to the city. Johnny Mack Brown, a Dothan native, was an All-American football star nicknamed 'the Dothan Antelope' before becoming a Hollywood Western movie actor.

Dothan Landmarks and Local Life

• Landmark Park - a 135-acre living-history site that is Alabama's official agricultural museum
• The Dothan Opera House (1915) - a restored performing-arts venue downtown
• Wiregrass Museum of Art - housed in the city's 1913 municipal power plant
• Dothan Area Botanical Gardens.
• The U.S. Army Aviation Museum at nearby Fort Novosel (formerly Fort Rucker) - with a large helicopter collection
• Cherry Street AME Zion Church - regarded as a 'Mother Church' of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination in Alabama