Well, I awoke this morning in Tallahassee with rain falling steadily and I decided that the redneck riviera was just not going to be for me. So I turned on the GPS, programmed in Warm Springs, via Andersonville, and set out. About an hour driving north and the rain slowed, then ceased. I did not see an Interstate all day. The drive thru southwestern Georgia was very rural, with ocassional small towns and rolling countryside in between, with farms, be they peanut or horse or cattle, here and there.
Andersonville, the site of the infamous War of Northern Aggression POW camp. As I get near, according to the Navigatrix, I start looking and I see to the left a road with an archway proclaiming that this is the famous Andersonville. So I pull in to this small burgh, even tho the Navigatrix is shreiking at me to u-turn and keep going. To the side is a small building proclaiming itself to be the "Visitor Center". Can't be a trick, can it.
So I go inside this rather rustic building (not the kind of snazzy visitors' centers you usually find at Civil War battle sites.) There's a little old lady inside an otherwise deserted building with a charming southern drawl who welcomes me to Andersonville. I say it's pretty quiet and she opines it is the off- season. So I say, I understand there is a museum and she says Oh, yes, and directs me thru this rickety door with the admonition that there is no heat in the museum. Well, there wasn't a heck of a lot else, either. I'm used to spending hours in such museums, and I was in and out of there in 5 minutes. And the theme was mostly about how the North unfairly treated the Commandant at the end of the war, and how he did what he could. (He was tried and hung as a war criminal.) Which, from what I have read, is largely true.
So I say to myself that was hardly worth a detour, and I reprogram the GPS for Warm Springs. I get a mile down the road and there's a fancy sign announcing the Andersonville Prison Camp Visitor's Center and Museum! I pull down this side road and there's a nice brick Visitors' Center and Museum befitting the name, and I spend over an hour there. It is much more middle of the road vis a vis North vs. South and who treated prisoners worse. In fact, it had a whole section devoted to Northern "colored" troops who were captured and how they were treated or mistreated. See pics above of the site of the prison.
So I wonder what the story is of the two different visitors centers and museums.
Hi Harold,
ReplyDeleteI've really enjoyed catching up on your travels after a couple of weeks of lost days (you know, the kind that disappear into the void of dental visits, tax prep, household duties, car repair, etc. Well, perhaps your list doesn't include household duties. Sounds like you're having a very interesting and good time despite the speed bumps along the way. If you return via Edisto, stop at the cafe in the pink building on the East side of the main road outside of town and try Miss Etta's shrimp roll. It's to die for. The building says "Landscape, Irrigation" in front and "Home Cooking Gullah Style" below. You can't miss it. Marty