03-09 Westville, Georgia

From 3-09 Westville, Georgia an 1850's village

One day while at Florence Marina SP, we drove over to Lumpkin, Georgia only 16 miles away to tour Westville.

Here is a description from the Westville website:

"Westville is an outdoor history museum which depicts an 1850 west Georgia village. You may have seen pictures of little towns like Westville. They dotted the 1850s countryside in the southern United States.

We have created Westville so that you can experience a community in the twenty-first century similar to the ones in which our ancestors lived in the middle of the nineteenth century. See where the antebellum townspeople worshipped, voted, and went to school. Westville has over thirty authentically restored and furnished pre-Civil War buildings: houses, stores, workshops, churches, school, and courthouse. In fact, it has all the ingredients of a functioning town.

Our guides and interpreters are in 1850's dress and will take you through the town and share with you the history of Westville, its people, and their times."

From 3-09 Westville, Georgia an 1850's village

It was a slow period when we visited. Only a few visitors were touring the town and only three guides were conducting tours. Each covered 1/3 of the town and only explained a few of the buildings although all the buildings were open to be viewed. Each guide did an excellent job.

I was especially interested in the large animal powered cotton gin

From 3-09 Westville, Georgia an 1850's village

and cotton press (picture at beginning of this Blog entry). I had seen neither. My Uncle Vernon Kimbrough grew cotton near my home town in the Mississippi delta when I was growing up. I always enjoyed going out to visit. I was familiar with modern cotton picking machines, cotton gins and cotton bales. Another thing I recall about cotton bales is that my father's was given the opportunity to raise his own cotton on an acre of his Father's land. He raised and sold one bale of cotton and that was his high school graduation gift.

From 3-09 Westville, Georgia an 1850's village

Westville is a very interesting place to visit. It is worth the trip to Florence Marina SP for a few days. Plus there are several other things to tour within 1 or 2 hours drive.

If you are interested, I have 53 pictures from Westville (about 1/3 of what I took) in a Web Album. Just click on the link under one of the pictures to see them.