Last weekend, while driving through Hawkinsville, GA I stumbled across an old depot there. Though I have forgotten the street it is on, the building (currently used as a scale house) is just north of the business district and adjacent to several cotton gins and peanut warehouses. I was curious as to which railroad(s)owned the station out of the four lines (Southern, H&FS, H&W, and W&T)that served the city until the 1920's and if the other lines used the station or had seperate terminals.

Also, when did the Southern Ry., the last line to operate into Hawkinsville, retrench their track just across the Ocmulgee River to the grain elevator ? Was this due to their truss bridge, which is still in place, over the Ocmulgee being in poor shape or a general lack of traffic in Hawkinsville proper?

-- Eric Rickert (au_tiger777@hotmail.com), December 04, 2002

Answers

Eric, likewise, I also noticed the station while driving around town. Since it was Sunday, no one was around to ask about the history of the station. I thought that it might have belonged to the H & FS or the Ocilla Southern. I checked out the location on Microsoft Map Reference for a detailed map of the city. The map depicted the Southern Rwy. line extending westward to a terminous about where the station is located. Based on this information, I believe that the station was once the Southern Rwy. station in Hawkinsville prior to the abandonment of trackage west of the River. I don't consider my information to be conclusive, so the possibility of the station belonging to another railroad still exists! Good luck and best wishes! Aaron Dowling (aarondowling@cfl.rr.com)

-- Aaron Dowling (aarondowling@cfl.rr.com), January 06, 2003.