Today we’d like to introduce you to Cindy Bowden.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
The Chipley Historical Center is a regional history museum locate in Pine Mountain Georgia. located at 146 N McDougald Ave .
Telephone: (706) 663-4044. Our email is: info@chipleyhistoriccenter.org
Our permanent exhibitions include:
Prehistoric area, where we display artifacts as early as 15,000 – 9,000 B.P. from the Pine Mountain area. Our exhibition features early tools used for hunting and early pottery.
Next, we discuss the land lottery system, where the United States forced the native Americans to move west. Land lots were drawn from one barrel and a qualified person’s name from another barrel. The recipient paid $18.00 for 200 acres.
We cover agriculture with an emphasis on mills and the cotton industry.
Transportation is discussed from trains to buses and how they shaped Chipley, now Pine Mountain.
Kids love to go into our second room, where they see the real jail cells and the Chipley Bank safe. We even have a rotary phone, complete with a book on how to use it. Schools and the separate but equal schools are shown, emphasizing how they were not equal, just separate.
Another area talks about businesses and home life.
We have a changing exhibition area where we showcase a large variety of subjects. From February 28th to June 30, 2026, we will be featuring “The Georgia Black History Trail and Harris County.”
We are one of three founding members of the Georgia Black History Trail. Our goal is to create a website featuring black history sites in all 159 counties. We already have 192 members in 59 counties.
Outside in our butterfly garden we have a newly refurbished train caboose.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Like all non-profit organizations, there is always a challenge to provide funding support for expenses and special projects. While membership helps, grant writing, individual donations, and foundations are part of the non-profit equation.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Visiting museums is a wonderful way to be exposed to new subjects. To create an exhibition or program, you start with research, local, statewide, and national. Sometimes we have information in our archives and collection storage. Other times, we seek out people to talk about their experiences and to hopefully borrow artifacts.
For our upcoming exhibition on “The Georgia Black History Trail in Harris County,” we have been fortunate to have volunteers meet monthly to discuss what should be covered, such as schools, businesses, or entertainment. For example, Mack Miller Park was created by the Callaway family to provide a location where black people could dance, listen to music, play baseball, relax, and have a good time. Although the park no longer exists, it affected many lives in Harris County,
What does success mean to you?
To educate people on topics of importance in Harris County and Georgia.
Pricing:
- The museum is free to all who visit.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Chipleyhistoricalcenter.org
- Facebook: Chipley Historical Center
