Tag: Andy Brack

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House with a view, near Gasburg, Va.

Old farm house with commanding presence, near Gasburg, Va. Photo by Andy Brack.
Old farm house with commanding presence, near Gasburg, Va. Photo by Andy Brack.

This imposing, empty old farm house dominates a hilly cow pasture outside Gasburg, Va., near the intersection of Spraggins and Oak Grove roads.

Several people who viewed the photo said it reminded them of Andrew Wyeth’s famous 1948 painting “Christina’s World” — just without Christina.

A post office deliveryman said he recently saw a black bear chasing cows on the property where last week butterflies swarmed around blooming milkweed and Queen Anne’s lace.

Gasburg is in rural Brunswick County, a farming area on the North Carolina border with more than 17,000 residents.  Like most Southern Crescent counties, poverty exceeds 20 percent.

Copyrighted photo taken July 24, 2013, by Andy Brack, Center for a Better South.  All rights reserved.

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Tobacco field, Valentines, Va.

Tobacco field, Valentines, Va., 2013. Photo by Andy Brack.
Tobacco field, Valentines, Va., 2013. Photo by Andy Brack.

Tobacco is maturing in fields across the Southern Crescent, including this patch in rural Valentines in the southeastern part of Virginia.  In the background is Wright’s Gen. Mdse., an old-time country store that doubles as a post office.  Much of the store is an homage to how old country stores used to be, but you can still buy some stuff like cold drinks and crackers.

Tobacco production remains a viable business across the South, particularly the flue-cured tobacco of the American South that is used in higher-end tobacco products across the world.  While China outpaces American production four-fold or more, American tobacco apparently is preferred to help flavor products.  U.S. production in 2012 was about 500 million pounds and is expected to be in high demand again this year.  More info.

This photo in the unincorporated Valentines community is in Brunswick County, a farming area on the North Carolina border with more than 17,000 residents.  Like most Southern Crescent counties, poverty exceeds 20 percent.

Copyrighted photo taken July 24, 2013, by Andy Brack, Center for a Better South.  All rights reserved.

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Old depot, Plains, Ga.

Old depot, Plains, Ga. Photo by Andy Brack.
Old depot, Plains, Ga. Photo by Andy Brack.

This old train platform in Plains, Ga., is preserved at the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site to highlight what an old train depot used to look like.  The other end of the building was the first campaign headquarters for Carter’s 1976 successful bid for the presidency.

We liked how the Park Service kept this part of the depot because it recalls simpler, slower times without all of the hustle and bustle of modern life (cell phones, computers, GPS, etc.)

Plains, about 15 miles west of Americus in Georgia’s agricultural heartland, had 776 people in 2010, according to the Census.  Three in five residents are black, with whites comprising almost all of the rest.  About a quarter of the population lives below the poverty line.

Photograph taken May 15, 2013, by Andy Brack, Center for a Better South.  Copyright 2013.  All rights reserved.

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Empty car dealership, Claxton, Ga.

Empty car dealership, Claxton, Ga. Photo by Andy Brack.
Empty car dealership, Claxton, Ga. Photo by Andy Brack.

Claxton, Ga., known for its fruitcakes and annual rattlesnake roundup, is one of many rural Southern towns that features an empty, old car dealership.  In the background, you can see the town’s main stoplight at the intersection of Main and Duval streets, also known as the crossing of U.S. highways 301 and 280.

Some of the businesses in towns like Claxton moved out of the central business district to the outskirts to capitalize on Wal-Marts that drained downtown activity.  Some of them just closed.

Claxton, county seat for Evans County, is located about 50 miles west of Savannah, Ga.

While Claxton has about 2,200 residents, Evans County is home to an estimated 10,689 residents, a slight drop from the 11,000 people recorded in the 2010 Census.  Some 22 percent of Evans County residents live below the federal poverty level.  The average per capita income is $18,547.

Photo is from May 2013 and is copyrighted by Andy Brack, Center for a Better South.  All rights reserved.

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Montgomery Monitor, Mount Vernon, Ga.

Montgomery Monitor, Mount Vernon, Ga.
Montgomery Monitor, Mount Vernon, Ga.

As a boy in the late 1960s, photographer and Better South President Andy Brack visited this building a few times a year because his father, Elliott Brack, published “The Montgomery Monitor” every week.

“I’d go with Dad as he made his weekly rounds to get the news to fill up this small paper,” Brack remembers.  “There was a nice older lady who worked there every day who would watch me for awhile.  On a lot of visits, I’d go across the street and get a haircut that would have passed any military inspection.

“It was fun riding to and from Mount Vernon and seeing all of the different scenes between there and our home in Jesup, some 75 miles to the south.  More than anything, those trips outside of Jesup contributed to a lifelong love of open, rural landscapes, like those found throughout the Southern Crescent, and the love of just traveling to see different things.”

These days, Montgomery County and the area around Mount Vernon seem strapped, but interestingly, the population is about 50 percent bigger than it was in the late 1960s when Brack visited.  In 2012, the estimated population was just under 9,000 — some 3,000 more people than in the 1970 Census.  More.

Some 21.6 percent of people in the county live at or below the federal poverty level.

Photo by Andy Brack, May 2013.  All rights reserved.

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At the edge of town, Hampton, S.C.

Manufacturing area, Hampton, S.C.
Manufacturing area, Hampton, S.C.

Pictured above is the old Hampton, S.C., Coca-Cola Bottling plant with the Nevamar Decorative Surfaces factory in the background at right. Nevamar, which makes high-pressure laminates, has more than 400 employees, making it the county’s largest employer.

Hampton County, located in the southern part of South Carolina, was home to 21,090 people in 2010, about 4,000 fewer than a century earlier.  More. Some 22.6 percent of Hampton County residents live below the poverty line.

Hampton’s annual Watermelon Festival is the state’s longest, continually-running festival.  The town of Hampton includes a brownfield of a former medical waste incinerator.  More.

Photo by Andy Brack, May  2013.  All rights reserved.

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To get to the other side, Fitzgerald, Ga.

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Yes, this is a photo of one of those crazy Burmese chickens in Fitzgerald, Ga., crossing the road to, ahem, get to the other side.  These chickens, pests to some and paragons of community pride to others, roam the town’s downtown streets.  While they mostly scamper away from prying photographers, some like this rooster occasionally to taunt vehicles with face-offs on the streets.

Just over 9,000 people live in Fitzgerald, the county seat of rural Ben Hill County.  Some 31.6 percent of people live in poverty, according to Census figures. More.

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Photo by Andy Brack in May 2013.  All rights reserved.

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Burmese chickens of Fitzgerald, Ga.

A Burmese rooster struts its stuff in downtown Fitzgerald, Ga.
A Burmese rooster struts its stuff in downtown Fitzgerald, Ga.

If you want to visit a place where the chickens and roosters roam free in the downtown, check out Fitzgerald in Georgia’s heartland.  Burmese chickens, introduced by state officials in the 1960s to be a game bird like turkeys and quail for hunters, didn’t make it the public’s mind.  And despite an attempt to get rid of the colorful birds, they survived. (More on their history.)

Locals apparently then thought of them as pests for their free-range habits (they’re so, pardon the pun, cocky that they face off with cars in the street), but grew to embrace them so much that there’s now a Wild Chicken Festival in March in the town’s downtown historic district.

Not everyone in Fitzgerald loves the chickens, but talk about an innovative way to bring in tourists and bolster the local economy!

Just over 9,000 people live in Fitzgerald, the county seat of rural Ben Hill County.  Some 31.6 percent of people live in poverty, according to Census figures. More.

Links:

Photo by Andy Brack in May 2013.  All rights reserved.

 

 

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What’s this guy doing, Leary, Ga.

Videographer in Leary, Ga.
Videographer in Leary, Ga.

There’s not a lot that seems to go on in rural Leary, Ga., a southwestern agricultural village in Calhoun County.  So when a videographer shows up and starts filming local statues and buildings, people get to talking.  Unfortunately, the camera crew wouldn’t tell anybody why they were filming abandoned buildings, this statue, the old railroad stations and more.  Today’s photo is the fifth and last in a series that profiles what Leary looks like.

Leary, which had 610 people in the 2010 Census (56 fewer than 10 years earlier) is predominantly poor and black.  Three in four residents are black.  Some 36 percent of the people in Calhoun County live at or below the poverty line, according to the 2010 Census.

There’s not a lot of businesses in Leary.  Its train depot is closed.  Across the street from a busy convenience store is a full city block of deserted businesses and homes.  More than anything, Leary seems old and tired with little hope of a prosperous future.  Notes photographer Michael Kaynard, “The downtown area had been deserted and the jail, post office and other businesses moved away and followed the highway.”  Other than the store, the only thing that appeared to have some activity was a peanut plant, which operates seasonally.

Photo by Andy Brack of the Center for a Better South, May 2013.  All rights reserved.

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Old station, Leary, Ga.

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Old railroad station, Leary, Ga.

The old railroad station in Leary, Ga., looks solid, but it’s slowly decaying, much like the rest of the small Calhoun County town is.  You can’t see it in this photo, but vines cover the back wall of the station.

Leary, which had 610 people in the 2010 Census (56 fewer than 10 years earlier) is predominantly poor and black.  Three in four residents are black.  Some 36 percent of the people in Calhoun County live at or below the poverty line, according to the 2010 Census.

There’s not a lot of businesses in Leary.  Its train depot is closed.  Across the street from a busy convenience store is a full city block of deserted businesses and homes.  More than anything, Leary seems old and tired with little hope of a prosperous future.  Notes photographer Michael Kaynard, “The downtown area had been deserted and the jail, post office and other businesses moved away and followed the highway.”  Other than the store, the only thing that appeared to have some activity was a peanut plant, which operates seasonally.

Photo by Andy Brack of the Center for a Better South, May 2013.  All rights reserved.