According to an article in last Sunday's Macon Telegraph, the Plains welcome center is "the least-visited of Georgia's 11 state-run visitor's centers, attracting 65,000 people last year. By comparison, centers on heavily trafficked routes along busy interstates routinely attract several hundred thousand drivers each year."
So why a Georgia Welcome Center in Plains, which is located 40 miles (65 km) west of I-75? Plains is best known as the hometown of President Jimmy Carter and said welcome center is near the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site (JCNHS).
While I am a big fan of official state welcome centers, I do wonder why Georgia built a welcome center on a route that sees very little traffic compared to major Interstate Highway entry points, especially when the JCNHS has its own visitor information center.
One reason why I like to visit state welcome centers is to pick up copies of official state roadmaps for my collection, but that alone cannot justify a welcome center's existence. I also realize that state welcome centers provide info on all Georgia attractions (parks, historic sites, museums, etc.), but couldn't the National Park Service and the Georgia Department of Economic Development (who runs the official state welcome centers) cut some type of deal to allow such brochures in the JCNHS center? After all, the State of Georgia does help the National Park Service by promoting National Park-run sites such as JCNHS and Andersonville National Historic Site and Cemetery (which is just northeast of Plains and Americus) at the more heavily used state welcome centers.
Back then, there was no I-95 going through Georgia and travelers from up north apparently used this route to go to Florida. However, I-95 has long since been open and is jam-packed with southbound travelers who would use the Georgia Welcome Center on I-95 southbound. Admittedly, I have no hard data to prove that the 301 welcome center is not that heavily used, but I do know that South Carolina closed it's US 301 welcome center on their side several years ago, apparently due to lack of volume. So why is Georgia keeping their 301 welcome center open? For historic purposes, perhaps? Inquiring minds would like to know.
Near Columbus, there is the Georgia Welcome Center on I-185 at Williams Road. Before it was opened sometime in the early 1990s, there was a state welcome center on US 27/280/GA 1/520 (Victory Drive). It was apparently closed when Georgia opened up the current one off I-185.
I visited that particular center back in 1988 when I was in Columbus for a ham radio show (hamfest). Given that Atlanta-to-Panama City traffic uses I-185, US 80, and US 431 as their preferred route, it made sense to close the center on an apparently less-traveled route.
So far, I have visited almost all of the official Georgia Welcome Centers. Again, I am a big fan of official state welcome centers, but as a taxpayer, I would rather see them placed along points where more people enter the state. Alabama and Florida each have an official welcome center on US 231, but considering that 231 is the last leg of a heavily traveled route between Panama City and points northward (Atlanta, Birmingham, etc.), their existence is definitely justified IMHO.
That's it for now. I've got to get some clothes washed and get ready to attend my wife's sorority fundraising event tonight. Thanks for reading and please come back again.
Copyright 2007. Steve Williams. All rights reserved.
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