Big Birthday Bash planned for Atlanta’s 150th

This year marks 150 years since Atlanta was founded in 1872 by the laying of tracks between Texarkana and Marshall by the Texas and Pacific Railroad. A celebration is scheduled for September 9-10, 2022, with many activities in the planning stages.

The festivities will begin a week prior to the event with a Founders Day Softball game organized by Randy Sullivan, and possibly a Miss Founders Day Pageant. More information about these, and other events, will be announced at a later date.

At noon on Friday, September 9th, the opening of the time capsule that was buried September 9, 1972 will take place in the open field on the corner of Louise and Allday streets. Mike Hanner, of Hanner Funeral Service, has offered to dig up the vault and rebury it, just as his grandfather did 50 years ago for the Centennial celebration.

On Saturday, September 10, an old-fashioned parade will make its way up Hiram Street from the Highway Department to the railroad tracks. No motorized vehicles will be allowed.

Other activities that day will include: art contests and exhibits, organized by Nancy Coe and the 903 Artisans; Food contests and cook-offs, organized by Beth Tyson Boyd; live entertainment on two separate stages; a Farmers Market; produce contests; pie eating contest; watermelon seed spitting contest; games and contests for kids and adults; a mock saloon; a pet show and contest; and many other activities reminiscent of the period.

The Atlanta Downtown Merchants Association will host a Historical Building Tour, with antique window displays. They will also have on display the history of the building they occupy.

The Atlanta Historical Museum will hold it’s official Grand Re-opening in conjunction with the celebration and be open all that day. Contents retrieved from the time capsule will be on display, and those residents that put items in it back in 1972 can claim them once they are documented.

A new mural is planned to be unveiled on Stephen Wicks’ Accounting building on the corner of Main and William Street.

Games and other activities may include: 3-legged race; penny in the straw; liar’s contest; axe throwing; log splitting; beard contest; period costume contest; frog-jumping contest; milk bottle ring toss; greased-pig catching; and others.

One of the most interesting activities, still in the planning stages, is a Founders Day Ghost Stories tour. Volunteers will dress up as early Atlanta residents and stand in front of their graves at Pine Crest Cemetery and tell their story as a walking tour passes by. It would be scheduled to take place after the Rabbit’s Friday night Homecoming game.

A Founders Day steering committee has been formed to plan the event, and includes: Chairperson Kate Stow, Mayor Travis Ransom, City Manager David Cockrell, ACDC Director Miranda Johnson and Chamber President Jill Crocker.

The committee is looking for volunteers to help with all activities, as well as bands, quartets, church groups and individuals to entertain. Additional information will be published in the paper and posted on a new Facebook page: Atlanta, Texas History. Those wishing to help can send a message to that page or contact any of the Founders Day committee members.

Participants and attendees are encouraged to dress in period costume for the event.