Homerville Genealogical Library as Local Industry

Homegrown local industry not far east of here! Dean Poling wrote in the VDT yesterday, Merged libraries create largest genealogical center in East:

Two regional libraries officially merge this weekend, creating what should be the most comprehensive genealogy facility in the Eastern United States.

On Sunday, the Elmer’s Genealogical Library of Madison, Fla., merges with the Huxford Genealogy Library in Homerville to become the Huxford-Spear Genealogical Library.

The new library will be located in Homerville. Elmer Spear has closed his Madison, Fla., facility and moved his library’s 26,326 books, which covered 85 percent of a mile in shelving, to the newly named Huxford-Spear Genealogical Library.

Spear’s volumes join the Huxford collection.

I'm a Huxford Library member, and my 990 page family history book is in there, so I'm all for this.

Looks to me like an example of a local attraction started by local people that can turn into a local industry. Hey, look, the VDT thinks so, too, in their editorial of the same day:

But it has the potential to also serve as another valve in South Georgia’s economic engine.

To use the library, one must either become a member or pay a user’s fee. Numerous researchers are already anticipating the new library’s opening. These researchers will not only be willing to pay fees. They will also pay money to stay at area hotels and motels, eat at regional restaurants, and buy other merchandise from regional businesses.

We hope the library’s organizers will do all within their power to make this genealogical collection as accessible as possible to the public and travelers. And we hope that area leaders will do all within their power to help the library.

The Huxford-Spear Genealogical Library has the potential to make history.

I wonder if anything like that would work in Lowndes County? Is there anything Valdosta and Lowndes County is known for?

Let me think, Hahira has produced three professional baseball players. Hey, what about sports! Where's the winter camp for a baseball team? Where's the academic conference on the effects of sports on communities? Where's the High School Football Hall of Fame?

What about music? How many competitions have the LHS Georgia Bridgemen won by now? How about holding a competition here?

I'm sure other people can think of more ideas for homegrown local industry.

-jsq