(rshsdepot) Camak, GA

["James Dent" <james.dent_@_itochu.com>]

-From the Augusta (GA) Chronicle...

Festival will celebrate state railroad history

Web posted Friday, April 6, 2001


 Have a thought? Go to the Forums or Chat.


By Preston Sparks
Staff Writer


Looking for a break from golf this week?
How about taking a trip into the past when the Masters Tournament wasn't the
main gathering spot for visitors in the Augusta area and a railroad station
in Camak was.

It's all part of the Railroad Days Festival, a first-time event that will
take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday in the downtown streets of Camak,
a town 38 miles west of Augusta in Warren County.

The event will include everything from cloggers to arts and crafts to
information booths with history and old photos of the Georgia Railroad - the
state's first locomotive thoroughfare.

The Georgia Railroad is special to the residents of Camak mostly because the
railroad's first president was James Welborn Camak - the town's namesake.
According to Alva Haywood, an organizer of the festival, Mr. Camak also was
influential during the early 1800s in having several tracks of the Georgia
Railroad meet in Camak, making the town home to the state's only railroad
center at the time.

``The little town of Camak, who the most it ever had was less than 600
population ... was by that time connected to Atlanta, Augusta, Macon and
Savannah,'' Mr. Haywood said. ``It was a gathering spot. It was a place for
railroad people because it had these interchanges.''

Mr. Haywood said Saturday's festival will be the first one in Georgia to
recognize the importance of railroads in the state and was started by Camak
residents this year as a way to help revitalize their town.

``They said, `You know, it's a shame those buildings are going down like
they are,''' he said, referring to empty buildings in the once-thriving
downtown. ```We need to do something about it.'

``So, they said, `Let's come up and have something recognizing what
railroads have meant to this little town.' And then, it started expanding.''

Mr. Haywood said anyone with a love of history and railroads will enjoy what
the festival has to offer.

``People that are interested in railroads, they will see how they used to
be,'' he said.

To get to downtown Camak from Augusta, take Interstate 20 west and turn off
at exit 165. Take a left over the interstate onto Georgia Highway 80 and
continue about four miles to the town limits.

------------------------------