Letters to future sought by Walker County for its 200th birthday
Walker County officials are asking residents to submit a message to their future self as part of the county’s 200th anniversary celebration.
Letters, as well as poems and photographs, can be submitted until the end of January at bit.ly/WalkerCapsule or in person or by mail at the Walker County Board of Commissioners office at 101 S. Duke St., LaFayette, GA 30728.
The “2033 Note to Self Time Capsule” campaign was announced Monday during a ceremony to mark the 190th anniversary of the county’s creation on Dec. 18, 1833.
“These letters could include observations of life today in Walker County, reflections on the joys and challenges of growing up or the hopes and dreams the writer aspires to achieve over the next decade,” Joe Legge, public relations director for the county, said in a written statement about the campaign.
The items will be preserved in a time capsule at the Walker County Civic Center. The capsule will be opened Dec. 18, 2033.
In a follow-up email, Legge said it’s too far out to know what the county’s bicentennial celebration will look like, but county officials will likely form a committee in about five years and enlist help from the Walker County Historic Preservation Commission.
During the county’s 150th anniversary, the county commissioned a historical painting, held parades, had a “fun day” at the courthouse and designed a commemorative Coca-Cola bottle, he said.
On 18, 1833, then-Gov. Wilson Lumpkin signed a bill dividing Murray County into two counties, officially creating Walker County, according to the release.
Portions of Walker County were used by state officials to create the counties of Dade, Catoosa, Chattooga and Whitfield to address travel issues for people attending court and seeking county services.
John Culpepper, chair of the Walker County Historic Preservation Commission, discussed the time capsule campaign in a phone call.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea,” he said. “It’s great to get our history out to the public. A lot of knowledge of history is lost when people pass on, and it’s another way to have a record of things that have happened this year.”
Culpepper said he lives south of Chickamauga.
The commission is going to include a refrigerator magnet from the Battle of Chickamauga’s
160th reenactment that was held this summer, he said. The commission’s submission will leave room for other Walker County residents to contribute, he said.
“I’m 78, so I’m not sure I’ll be there when they open the capsule,” Culpepper said, laughing.
In the early 1800s, the state of Georgia began distributing territory seized from the once-independent Cherokee Nation and other Native American tribes in a series of land lotteries, he said. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, according to the Library of Congress, which exchanged Native American land in states like Georgia with territory west of the Mississippi River.
A few tribes went peacefully, but many were forcibly removed in what is now called the Trail of Tears. The National Park Service estimates about 10,000 Native Americans died during or soon after the march.
The release said many of the first settlers of Walker County were soldiers from the American Revolution or Indian wars or their widows and orphans, who won the land lots and came to make their home in fertile valley land, the release said.
Culpepper said the commission is working on a series of roadside interpretive signs to teach residents and guests about the county’s history. Features to be commemorated are some of the county’s early mining operations and schools for African Americans
founded in the communities of Dewberry and Wallaceville, he said.