Baden Starts Back

A rusty orage gas pump and deserted houses. That was Baden, Georgia, in the latter months of 1969.

But now a grain elevator and four large shiny storage bins are changing things in Baden for 1970 and the years ahead.

This run-down shack is a reminder of the way things used to be in Baden.

The gas pump serves as a reminder of what was once a busy turpentine town with a dozen families, and the new bins are symbolic of new agri-business locating along the Southern Railway System.

Last December when construction workers assembled the bins, they faced a ghost town. Tall grass and sage surrounded empty houses linked together by roads that were parallel ruts with shrubs and high grass growing down the middle. Baden had only two residents, an 81-year-old woman and her son.

Henry L. Reaves (left), assistant to director, Agri-Business Services, "talks shop" with Robert Clark of the Ellsworth Cattle Co., Hickory Head, Ga.

But all of this has changed. Baden, located about eight miles south of Quitman, is busy once again. Activity now centers on the bins, which are owned by Leo Ellsworth of Lesley, Georgia. Mr. Ellsworth needed the bins to store corn for the several thousand head of cattle he moved into Hickory Head.

Southern "Big John" covered hopper cars and a tank car carrying a liquid feed supplement in front of storage bins at Baden.

New businesses don't just pop up automatically along the right-of-way. Businessmen often have to be made aware of the potential advantages of locating on the Southern. In this case, it was Henry L. Reaves, assistant to the director of Southern's Agri-Business Services, who helped make the arrangements for the livestock business and the siding that serves it.

"Traditionally, Georgia farmers have raised feeder cattle and sold them to buyers in the Midwest to be finished out on corn to marketing weight," said John P. Dunn, Jr., director of Agri-Business Services. "But we are now focusing attention on the opportunities of feeding out the animals to marketable weight in the South."

Southern's "Big John" freight car has put the South's farmers in a position to compete effectively for the lucrative business of supplying the South's tables with meat. This 100-ton-plus-capacity car hauls great quantities of grain from the Midwest at a price (including transportation) that makes feeding out livestock a feasible business in the South. Specifically designed by Southern for the handling of grain, the large car enabled Southern to lower its grain freight rates 60 per cent.

Loading chutes for trucks are at the rear of the storage bins.

Piercing the sky, the grain elevator and the four bins in Baden have become a landmark for miles around. The Baden experience is just another example of the any new business opportunities "Big John" has opened up in the South.