Departed Little Ocmulgee State Park. It was a quiet overnight stop. I have to admit, I think it was the first State Park we have been in that had cable. If you like to golf, it would be a great campground to stay in as there is an 18-hole course at the park. Looks like a mostly overcast and rainy day of two lane adventures!
We continued to follow US 441, although US 319 joined it as we headed toward Dublin, Georgia. It is strategically situated at the junction of I-16 and US 441 and 319, while US 80 provides easy access from both east and west. Known as "The Emerald City,” the City of Dublin was incorporated by the Georgia Assembly on December 9th, 1812, and made the county seat. It is said that a citizen, Jonathan Sawyer, named it Dublin after the capital of his Irish homeland. Every year in March, the entire community is a "wee bit Irish" for the Dublin-Laurens St. Patrick's Festival which has been in existence for over 30 years! The month-long celebration offers fun for the whole family, including a leprechaun contest.
Dublin is home to a Carnegie Library. The Dublin Carnegie is now one of only three surviving Carnegie libraries in the state of Georgia listed on the National Registry of Historic Places and still in its original form. A Carnegie library is a library built with money donated by Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. A total of 2,509 Carnegie libraries were built between 1883 and 1929. We have found others on several of our two lane adventures. The Carnegie Library was built in 1904 from Andrew Carnegie. In 2013, Dublin's Carnegie Library underwent another massive restoration, and has been reimagined for the 21st century as an art gallery, event center and downtown visitor’s center. A focal point of downtown Dublin's Bicentennial Plaza, Dublin Carnegie hosts a schedule of nationally acclaimed exhibits with spotlights on local and regional works. A display of Lila Moore Keen's famous camellia painting and lesser known portraits and landscapes are on permanent display. A native Dubliner, Lila Moore Keen dedicated her life to preserving the beauty of Southern flowers on her canvases.
When US 441 and US 319, we followed 319 into Historic Wrightsville. What makes Wrightsville so historic? There is a 100+ year old historic courthouse and you can walk back in time along their store fronts.
Coming into Bartow Georgia it looks like many of the really small towns that we pass thru on our two lane adventures. There are overgrown yards, trash at the roadside edge and old forgotten businesses.
But when you turn the corner, there is a row of old brick buildings well maintained and open! The buildings contain the Midnight Run Distillery and the Town offices! What a combination! Midnight Run Distillery is owned and operated by an Active Duty Lieutenant Firefighter and his family. You can see the Still, Take a few Shots, Meet the Mayor and see our Museum across the Street in the Old Train Depot.
Yes, you read that right … meet the Mayor, no the Mayor is
not a drunk, he is the Distillery Owner and the Fire Fighter. What’s that old
saying, when you want something done, give it to the busiest person and they
will get it done! At Midnight Run Distillery, Moonshine is made the way it
should be made in a 200-gallon copper still. It’s a small batch craft distillery
making spirits from locally grown corn and wheat.
Too bad as we pulled into Louisville Georgia, this business owner parked his cargo trailer in front of this mural. What is “The Yazoo Fraud”? I asked the same question … Well, in 1795 one of Georgia’s worst political scandals took place - the Yazoo Land Fraud. At that time, Georgia’s legal boundary extended west to the Mississippi River. Many state leaders wanted to open this area to settlement, but Creeks, Cherokees, and other Native Americans lived there. If they could be persuaded to leave, then whites could settle the large expanse of land, greatly increasing Georgia’s population, and bringing profit to those who sold the land. Land speculators had formed companies and started trying to buy some of this land as early as 1789. But the efforts began in earnest in 1794, then reached their height in 1795. Representatives from four private land companies bribed many Georgia politicians to pass a law to “protect” the frontiers of this State, and for other purposes. But in reality this law allowed the companies to buy 35 million acres of land at an incredibly low price of less than two cents an acre! The companies then sold the land (making huge profits) to either other speculators or to innocent civilians hoping to move to these frontier territories. Most Georgians were outraged when they learned of the Yazoo Land Fraud. Many of the legislators who had been bribed fled the state. The following year - 1796 - a newly elected legislature repealed the Yazoo Act and had the paper it was written on burned publicly on the statehouse grounds, then ordered that all copies of the Yazoo legislation be destroyed. Naturally the people who had purchased land under the act did not want to give up their claims, so they took the matter to court, and the case eventually reached the United States Supreme Court. The scandal finally ended in 1814 when the federal government took control of the lands in dispute and paid off all of the Yazoo claims.
Just before we turned onto GA 17 N, there is the second biggest export in Georgia, pecans! Although a pecan company under the "Atwell" name has been located in Wrens since 1935, the present owners did not purchase the company until 1971. The founder and original owner, Royce Atwell, sold his company, Atwell's Pecan Products, to Hugh Oliver. Hugh Oliver hired his son-in-law, Jerry Dowdy, to manage the business. Jerry was then 23 years old and had recently graduated from the University of Georgia. Although Jerry's wife Susan had grown up around the pecan shelling business since her father was co-owner of another shelling plant, Jerry had no experience in this field. His father-in-law's instructions were, "move to Wrens and learn what you need to know to operate and manage a pecan shelling plant." When Jerry and Susan moved to Wrens, the company handled approximately 450,000 pounds of in shell pecans annually and produced no products other than shelled pecans. In 1981, the couple completed a new shelling plant and cold storage facility located across the highway and in sight of the original 1935 plant. Today, Atwell Pecan Co., Inc. handles between three and five million pounds of pecans annually.
I love the idea of a football stadium surrounded by a brick wall. Hence the name, “The Brickyard.” What’s the story? One might think because there is a National Guard unit next to it, that maybe that wall was once part of their compound. Well, you would be wrong. Around 1925, 27 acres of land was purchased on Main Street for the future site of a new high school. The high school was constructed in 1929, a one story building with a cupola on top. In August 1938, it was struck by lightning. The bolt of lightning followed the electrical wiring through the building, and it burned to the ground. The Thomson, Georgia athletic field "The Brickyard" opened in 1941 utilizing bricks from the high school that was destroyed by the lightning strike.
I saw this historical marker and had to get a picture! We have a friend Nancy Hart Ragland. So, I wanted to include this tidbit, just for her! Nancy Hart was a legendary Georgia frontierswoman and a hero of the American Revolution who made it her mission to rid the Georgia territory of British Loyalists (Tories). A good deal of folklore surrounds Hart’s story. Born Ann Morgan in either Pennsylvania or North Carolina around 1735 (little is known of her actual birth date); Hart was called “Nancy,” a nickname for Ann. She was said to be an imposing, red-headed woman who grew to be six feet tall and muscular. Hailed for her fearlessness, local Cherokees referred to her as “Wahatche” or “war woman.” Possibly a relative of frontiersman Daniel Boone, she was illiterate but knew much about frontier survival. She was a skilled herbalist, hunter and an excellent shot, despite being cross-eyed. She married Benjamin Hart at the late age of 36, and in the 1771 the couple settled along the Broad River in Wilkes County, Georgia. She had six sons and two daughters. During the Revolution while her husband was away, Hart managed their farm, though she often snuck off to spy on the British. Dressed as a man, she would enter British camps pretending to be feeble-minded to gain information, which she handed off to the Patriots. Hart also engaged in the war and may have been present at the Battle of Kettle Creek on February 14, 1779.
Passing briefly through Elbertson Georgia, we see almost every sign is made of granite, including the Elbertson City sign. We will be here for a few days, so I will share more about this town another day.
Eight miles down a quiet winding rural road, we arrived at Richard B Russell State Park. It will be our home for the next four nights.
There is something special about a site that has a view of the water! Ahhhhh, life is good!
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