The beach and dock at Little Ocmulgee State Park near McRae-Helena. Photo courtesy of the Friends of Little Ocmulgee State Park.

The natural beauty of Georgia’s diverse landscape has appealed to residents and visitors from its early years. Native Americans and farm families hunted and fished in the forests and rivers, taking sustenance, but also appreciating the beauty they found there.

Today, the land still holds a strong attraction for those living in rural Georgia and for those living in Georgia’s cities who both share an appreciation for the outdoors. Preserving land for future generations has become a priority of national, state, and local governments.

Little Ocmulgee State Park near McRae-Helena traces its origins back to the Civilian Conservation Corps, a program created by the federal government during the New Deal in 1933. The men worked and lived at the site, creating the 256-acre lake off the Little Ocmulgee River. Some of the original structures still stand, although much of the park has been renovated and now includes a sandy beach, walking trails, a golf course, a lodge and restaurant, cabins, and campgrounds.

The McRae Post Office mural, titled Turpentine and Cotton, was painted in 1939 by artist Oliver M. Baker. The mural remained in the Post Office until 1952. Photo courtesy of the National Archives.

Post offices have connected small towns and their residents to the rest of the world long before phones and the Internet. During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration or WPA formed as part of the New Deal to help job-seekers by providing employment through public-works projects.

Most post office artwork was commissioned through a separate program funded through the Department of the Treasury known as the Section of Painting and Sculpture, later called the Section of Fine Arts. The Section, often confused with the WPA Federal Art Project, was not created to provide economic relief, but instead to create public art to help boost morale in areas hit hard by the Great Depression. It obtained paintings and sculptures through competitions to decorate new federal buildings, primarily post offices and court houses. The program began in 1934 and operated until 1943, awarding approximately 1,400 contracts for art in federal buildings.

One such contract was awarded to the McRae Post Office, built by the WPA in 1935. In 1939, artist Oliver M. Baker was commissioned to paint a mural for the new facility. Baker’s artwork, Turpentine and Cotton, remained in the McRae Post Office until 1952, when it was removed for building renovations but was never replaced. The timing is unclear, but the painting was temporarily stored before it was eventually destroyed.

Two employees tend to the land on Sunshine Farm. Photo courtesy of Sunshine Farm.

Georgia agriculture has changed over the last one hundred years, and it now contributes more than 73 billion dollars to the state’s economy.  Approximately one in seven Georgians work in agriculture, forestry, or a related field. Farmers have adapted to changing agricultural practices, markets, and technology, and many are experimenting with new ideas, such as developing small-scale sustainable operations and growing specialty crops.

Sunshine Farms in McRae-Helena, a small farm owned and operated by the Hoogland family and two employees, is one such operation. Caitlin Joy Hoogland says the farm began out of tragedy—the death of her mother from breast cancer led her family to move from Idaho to the small town of McRae to be closer to her father.

Hoogland describes the farm as “just weeds” when it was purchased, but the family envisioned a farm that would be “good for humans and for the earth.” After nine months of transforming the fifty-three acres, Sunshine Farms, a chemical- and pesticide-free operation, was born. The farm now grows seventeen varieties of tomatoes, as well as garlic, blackberries, corn, kohlrabi, squash, zucchini, and turnips, and it’s well-known locally for its salad greens.

Hoogland says it is wonderful to be in a tight knit community that supports something new and different. She admits they were told by some that this type of farming would not work, but Hoogland stands by their decision, stating, “I will not feed the public something I would not feed my kids.”