Rocky Ford, Ga., a circa 1870s town with “untold treasures and endless opportunities” according to this site, is home to about 200 people in rural Screven County in eastern Georgia.
According to photographer Brian Brown, “After putting much of her personal wealth and energy into the restoration of her beloved hometown of Rocky Ford, Greta Newton is now offering its historic commercial core for sale. Without her passion for the history of this place, it would have suffered the same fate as so many of our forgotten small towns in Georgia.”
Rocky Ford is in Screven County, which had 2,675 people in 2000, according to the Census. Screven County got its start after the Revolutionary War and soon became part of the Black Belt of Georgia where cotton became an important staple crop tended by enslaved African Americans.
The county’s population jumped from 3,019 in 1800 to 8,274 by 1860, according to Census figures. While it had 14,593 people in 2010, the county lost an estimated 391 people — 2.7 percent — by 2012, according to the U.S. Census. In 2010, Some 25.4 percent of county residents lived below the federal poverty level, 9 points higher than the state average.
Photo taken Sept. 23, 2013, by Michael Kaynard. All rights reserved.