Feature

"Things are changing in Meriwether," says Kip Purvis, president of the Meriwether County Development Authority. “It's always been a great place to live and raise a family, but it's on the verge of getting even better.” Long a rural county known mainly for the Little White House, Franklin D. Roosevelt's home in Warm Springs on the county's southern edge, Meriwether is beginning to hear the distant rumbling of encroaching growth from neighboring counties to the north and west—a rumbling that grows louder each day. Even with the economic slowdown that is occurring around the nation and in the region, opportunities are on Meriwether's doorstep; and the resourceful people of Meriwether County have always welcomed opportunities.

Meriwether County lies in west central Georgia, east of LaGrange, northeast of Columbus, and southwest of Atlanta; its upper left corner briefly bisected by Interstate 85 in its plunge toward Montgomery. The county's long eastern boundary is the Flint River, which cuts through the hilly, rocky and red clay Piedmont terrain that characterizes much of Meriwether County. Along Meriwether's southern edge rises Pine Mountain, the southernmost mountain in the East Coast's great Appalachian Mountain chain. Geographically central to Meriwether is Greenville, its languid, lovely, traditionally Southern county seat. A number of towns and small communities are scattered throughout the county—including Gay, Luthersville, Manchester, Warm Springs and Woodbury.

Historically, Meriwether has witnessed slow growth. During the early 20th century, Meriwether grew steadily, reporting a 1920 population of 26,000. Around 1920, the “boll weevil depression” struck the region and endured until subsumed by the Great Depression, which descended nationwide in 1929. The back-to-back depressions caused populations to plummet all over rural Georgia. Citizens moved north to industrial jobs in places like Cleveland and Detroit, or to the nearest southern city of any size to find work. Meriwether was no exception. By 1920, the county's population had dropped to just over 22,000, basically holding steady until after World War II, when agricultural mechanization sounded the death-knell for sharecropping. The resulting hegira of tenant farmers from country to city depressed populations in the generation following WWII; and by 1970, Meriwether had fewer than 19,500 residents.

Today, some 23,000 people call the 503 square miles of Meriwether County home. While no one would presume to call this growth astounding, neither should it be dismissed. Eighteen percent growth over the past thirty-something years may really be a testament to Meriwether's innate attractiveness during a period when there was little or no economic opportunity to entice young residents to stay, much less attract new ones. It also might be a testament to the resourcefulness of Meriwether County residents to seek and find opportunities where none seemed to exist.

Meriwether Resourcefulness

Meriwether Countians have a history of seizing opportunities from wherever they may come—and of creating their own, often quite resourcefully and colorfully. Meriwether's undulating Piedmont terrain criss-crossed by numerous creeks has brought about many of these opportunities. Meriwether's scenic streams, hills and hollows today attract tourists, vacation homesteaders, and increasing numbers of permanent residents but once brimmed with another economic juice. Moonshine liquor was the product, and certain areas of Meriwether have a rich history of its manufacture—mostly, but by no means totally, before and during the country's Prohibition and Depression years. Bootlegging was in no way a Meriwether monopoly, for the illegal trade abounded in many areas of the 20 South Region. It's just that Meriwether's wooded and undulated topography especially lent itself to the process, two basic requirements of which were running water and concealment opportunities. Another need was sugar, and at least one Meriwether moonshine operation is said to have been so large that its operator imported the sweet stuff by the railcar-load; likewise exporting the finished product. Elzie Hancock, a Georgia Revenue Agent during the early-to-middle years of the 20 th century, was known as the best tracker in the state and worked the area for many years. A vivid memory of his was that of a 1932 Meriwether still-yard shootout in which he felled a flamboyant and ruthless liquor man who came after Hancock with a pistol in each hand.

Perhaps not as colorful as moonshining, other examples of the economic resourcefulness of Meriwether's people abound. Consider Warm Springs. A highly-popular tourist and health attraction in the latter part of the 19 th century, the resort had fallen onto hard times by 1924, when Franklin D. Roosevelt learned of the springs' therapeutic value and traveled south in hopes of ameliorating the crippling effects of his polio. Using a significant portion of his personal fortune, he bought the down-at-the-heels resort and converted it into a treatment and therapy facility for other sufferers. Today it's known as the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation and is a well-respected rehabilitation and long-term acute care hospital. FDR loved the local populace and was bewitched by the visual splendor of the surrounding mountain and river vistas. While governor of New York, he built a small home in Warm Springs, which became known as the Little White House upon his 1933 presidential inauguration. For his remaining dozen years, FDR visited Meriwether frequently. Legend says he was an aficionado of the area's finest distillations, sending errand-runners over to The Cove—a small, isolated community near the Flint River—periodically to procure a pint or two for his sipping pleasure.

FDR's Little White House opened to the public in 1948 and is often cited as Georgia's most-visited historic site. However, Warm Springs itself fell out of the national spotlight after FDR's death, and by the 1960s looked something like a ghost town. Paul and Grace Bolstein, a couple from Florida, bought a significant portion of downtown Warm Springs and began revitalization. Venerable buildings were restored and augmented, a picturesque “town-behind-the-town” was built, and a variety of businesses and boutiques located in these structures, giving tourists as well as residents a thriving environment to enjoy. Atlantan Jean Kidd renewed and enhanced the Bolstein's revitalization in the early 1980s, attracting numerous new businesses. Downtown Warm Springs today exudes vibrancy and small-town charm, with shops full of antiques, art, and many other products, as well as numerous eateries. Area visitors can easily spend a day at the Little White House complex, which is just south of downtown, then another day or two exploring the village itself.

Nature enthusiasts have long enjoyed the natural beauty of Meriwether's Piedmont terrain, Pine Mountain, and particularly, the Flint River, one of Meriwether's greatest assets. The Flint, which rises at Atlanta's airport and flows to Georgia's southwest corner, where it merges with the Chattahoochee to form Florida's Apalachicola River, forms Meriwether's eastern boundary. “Of all the rivers I know in Georgia, the Flint is, to me, the most scenically beautiful, the most diverse, and the most user-friendly,” says Fred Brown of Brown's Guide to Georgia, a magazine of renown in the 1970s and 1980s, and today a useful and informative website about Georgia (www.brownsguides.com). “It provides opportunities unsurpassed by any other river in my experience for canoeing, hiking, fishing, exploring Georgia's unique geology, and simply enjoying the pleasure of being on a river. That is especially true of the section that defines the eastern border of Meriwether County.”

Then there's the town of Gay, in northeastern Meriwether, home to the nationally-known Cotton Pickin' Fair, which is held the first weekend every May and October. Ellen Gay McEwen directs the fair, which her parents began in the early 1970s. Well-rooted here (in fact, the town was named for McEwen's great-grandfather, W. F. Gay), McEwen's parents had seen traffic on the once-bustling Atlanta-to-Columbus highway (GA 85) virtually evaporate. They thought a wholesome country fair would attract people to the area, and their prescience has proved remarkable. Today at fair time, Gay's population swells from under 200 to about 30,000—making the Cotton Pickin' Fair among the most popular recurring events in the 20 South Region. Sited at a turn-of-the-last-century farmstead, the fair draws some 300 artisans and vendors selling arts, crafts, antiques and Southern food. Just as remarkable are the dozens of yard sales and flea markets that line the highways leading to Gay, clearly intending to hop on the bandwagon of the popular festival.

Over the years, the folks of Meriwether County have seized upon their geography and their history to turn the economic wheels of their county. Today, opportunity looms large at many portals, and Meriwether's leaders and citizens have united in positive, proactive ways to welcome it and prepare for its arrival.

Opportunity Knocks

Three significant opportunities beckon from outside Meriwether's borders, and the county expects to reap noteworthy rewards over the next several years from them all. Looking from south to north, these opportunities are the Fort Benning base realignment, the location of a new Kia facility in Troup County, and metropolitan Atlanta's ever-widening reach outward.

Since its founding in 1918, Fort Benning, an army installation in Muscogee and Chattahoochee counties, has had a major impact on the Columbus area. Among the largest of the Army's training facilities, the fort's instructional capabilities extend to all branches of the armed forces, plus several federal agencies; its deployment capabilities are formidable; and it is, by far, the area's largest employer. The Department of Defense's Base Realignment and Closure Plan (BRAC) will dramatically increase by 2012 the already-significant impact Benning has on the region by making it a “Maneuver Center of Excellence.” In civilian terms, this means a base that annually trains more than 75,000 individuals will soon increase that number by 40 percent. The area's base-related permanent population is expected to increase by more than 30,000 residents. Its distance from Fort Benning does not place the county on the front lines as a BRAC beneficiary, but Meriwether can expect to reap residual benefits, principally in its southern and western sections.

“The portion of the county from Greenville south has always been more oriented toward Columbus than toward Atlanta,” says Meriwether County Development Authority's (MCDA) Kip Purvis. “The bulk of our existing infrastructure is in this end of the county. It's a natural thing for people here to look toward Columbus, and we're excited about the probability that growth coming to that area will cause a substantial look back toward Meriwether as a way of alleviating local pressures nearer Fort Benning.”

The second principal opportunity comes from due west. The Korean automobile maker Kia chose the Troup County city of West Point as the site of its first North American manufacturing plant, which is slated to open in 2009. Promising 2,900 well-paying jobs at its plant, an estimated 2,600 jobs at first-tier suppliers, and another 3,500 at second-tier suppliers and services, the plant and the businesses it spawns will pack an economic wallop. This benefit is expected to extend in a 30-or-so mile radius of Troup County—an area that includes most of the western half of Meriwether County.

A third opportunity from outside Meriwether is suburban sprawl approaching its north side. Northerly neighbor Coweta County has long been an outer suburb of metropolitan Atlanta, with many new residential developments in virtually all price points. Stores, restaurants and entertainment venues have followed this residential growth in Coweta, reaffirming the adage that “retail follows rooftops.” As Coweta has grown southward, there has been some spillover of new residents into the Meriwether frontier. Leaders believe that north Meriwether growth will intensify in coming years as south Coweta develops more fully. MCDA's Purvis explains that this, too, will be a comfortable fit; for while residents of the southern end of the county have always looked toward Columbus, those in the northern half have always been more oriented toward Atlanta.

Ready for Change

Recent happenings indicate a broadening of Meriwether's economy is on the wing. Carolyn McKinley, Executive Director of the Meriwether County Chamber of Commerce, and Kip Purvis of the MCDA both are thrilled about the recent announcement by Dongwon, a Korean company that is a tier 1 structural parts supplier for Kia, of its intent to locate in Meriwether's new industrial park at Interstate 85. Construction is slated to begin in early-to-mid 2008. The plant will employ some 300 individuals, which constitutes a major economic shot-in-the-arm for the county, as well as a significant selling point in attracting other industries.

Meriwetherans realize their infrastructure needs substantial improvement and that the local workforce (as in most rural locales) is largely undereducated. Meriwether voters recently passed a sales tax for infrastructure needs, and the Chamber of Commerce has taken the lead in two initiatives to help prepare the workforce for the highly-skilled jobs coming available and augment the county's attractiveness as a business destination. Leaders believe firmly that residential growth will follow the increased employment opportunity and that retail development will chase the rooftops generated by the already-budding industrial growth.

“It's a good time to be in Meriwether County,” says the Chamber's McKinley, who has lived and worked here her entire life. “Our leadership is looking outward, and everyone has come together to focus on what is good for the county as a whole, rather than on community-specific issues. There's a stronger spirit of unity than I have ever felt before, and that's a wonderful thing.” Certainly, Meriwether County's location in the Macon-Columbus-Atlanta triangle; its proximity to I-85; the allure of its rocks, rills, and hills; the ability of its people and leaders to embrace change; and its firm hold on history all indicate compellingly that Meriwether is a 20 South county of the future.