This column is the sixth in a series devoted to promoting cultural tourism in coastal Georgia. It will be published in the Tribune & Georgian newspaper in Kingsland, GA, appearing on Wedenesday (September 28, 2005).
In the past five weeks, we have taken a short tour of what is possible. It is clear that, on a national scale, our affluent and mobile population looks for ways to experience the heritage of the places they visit during leisure and business travel. That search for entertainment and learning translates into local revenues: for residents as wages, for businesses as earnings and for local government as taxes and fees. This significant development means that our “Eden on the rivers” (the description of one local pundit) is ready. We meet the criteria: we are imbued with a gigantic local history that is colorful and unique; people love to come to coastal Georgia for fun, relaxation and business, we are located on a primary thoroughfare between opposite climates, and we have a community spirit that knows how to back a winner (go ‘Cats!).
Research and discussion has taught us how important it is for communities to use their treasured history and unique qualities when creating cultural tourism events and opportunities. However, there is an even more critical element shared by successful endeavors such as these. To build success and popularity among tourists and visitors, the most crucial factor is local support. Only through community belief in and participation in Crooked Rivers’ Sisters Three will regional and national awareness become reality. Only by making the Crooked Rivers saga interesting and vital to ourselves, will we make it an essential “must see” for others.
Bill Grow, an original participant in the inception of Swamp Gravy in Colquitt, GA, believes this is a vital requirement for success. His observations are pointed. According to Grow, Colquitt’s success did not come from starting big. They did not seek big grants or major corporate donations until after they had successfully produced and shared their cultural tourism vision with their neighbors and friends. Grow’s formula for success is simple: start at home; build through local participation; and grow large through the excitement and demand you create in your own community.
Since a group of local patrons saw Swamp Gravy in 2002 and asked Grow come to Camden to give a workshop on how to get such a production together, Crooked Rivers has been building its local base. Arts Camden embraced it and local participation began to develop. By 2004, it had a name (Crooked Rivers’ Sisters Three) and a breath of life in the form of a script based on hundreds of transcribed interviews of people of all ages, races and backgrounds in Camden County. Portions of the show have been performed at the waterfront park in St. Marys and at the Okefenokee Festival in Darien, GA, receiving positive popular acclaim. Displaying the vision and community commitment to sustain Crooked Rivers’ momentum, local companies such as Bayer Crop Science, Satilla River Landing, and Cumberland Harbour have provided essential funding that allowed the creative and organizational elements of Crooked Rivers to proceed and continue. Community leaders and elected officials in Woodbine have displayed remarkable vision that will allow Crooked Rivers to have a permanent home there in a few years, as the lovely improvements and development in that historic city continue.
Over the next weeks and months, your neighbors and friends here in Camden County will ask for your participation. They will ask for your donations and your time. It will personally be worth it for you to give both; it will be good for your community for you to give more.
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