[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 175 (Monday, November 14, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1134-E1135]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    RECOGNIZING THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE HISTORIC SAM SHORTLINE 
                            EXCURSION TRAIN

                                 ______
                                 

                      HON. SANFORD D. BISHOP, JR.

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, November 14, 2022

  Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 
Historic Savannah, Americus, & Montgomery (SAM) Shortline Excursion 
Train on the 20th anniversary of its first public run on October 26, 
2002.
  While the current SAM Shortline Excursion Train had its maiden voyage 
only twenty years ago, its ancestor and namesake, the Savannah, 
Americus, & Montgomery (SAM) Railroad Company, was founded during the 
1880s by Americus attorney and banker, Colonel Samuel Hugh Hawkins. The 
Americus region saw its first population and construction booms with 
the arrival of Southwestern Railroad in the early 1850s. Following the 
American Civil War, the people of southwest Georgia saw the railroad as 
a bright new opportunity for economic development and prosperity. But 
Southwestern and its lessee, the Central Railroad & Banking Company of 
Georgia, held a monopoly on the railroads and many in Americus began to 
feel the effects of exorbitant and discriminatory rates, thus 
contributing to a decline in local trade. When surrounding cities began 
proposing new rail lines to bypass Americus, Colonel Hawkins led the 
charge to construct new lines that would pass directly through the 
city, leading local investors to organize the Americus, Preston & 
Lumpkin Railroad (AP&L) in 1884 to ensure that Americus would continue 
to dominate the region's trade and continue to grow into the Twentieth 
Century. In 1888, Hawkins and his associates decided to extend the AP&L 
both east and west to create a direct route between Montgomery, 
Alabama, and Savannah. Later that year, the 265-mile project would be 
renamed as the Savannah, Americus, Montgomery Railway, known simply as 
``The SAM.''
  Before the SAM's mainline was constructed through the city, the lands 
surrounding Americus in Sumter County were largely undeveloped and 
sparsely populated. Following the boom in trade and wealth brought by 
the SAM, several new towns were founded throughout the region, 
including Richland, Cordele, Vidalia, and Lyons among others. The first 
new community, however, was created in Sumter County a few miles west 
of Americus near an older community called the Plains of Dura. Once 
SAM's main rail line approached the Plains of Dura community, residents 
of surrounding settlements began moving closer to the railroad and 
eventually chartered the town of Plains--the renowned home of famous 
Georgia peanut farmer and our 39th President, Jimmy Carter. Once fully 
developed, SAM Railway became the lifeblood of the city of Americus and 
spurred a second construction and population boom that would reshape 
the city as a powerful economic nexus in the region. During this 
period, the city saw the founding of several vital local businesses, 
such as the Americus Guano Company, the Americus Oil Company, the 
Americus Illuminating and Power Company, the Americus Construction 
Company, the Americus Grocery Company, as well as the town's crowning 
achievement--the Windsor Hotel.
  Despite its transformational success, SAM was not immune from the 
economic struggles of the era, and in 1893, amid a financial panic, 
Colonel Hawkins and his associates were forced to sell their beloved 
SAM Railway Company to John Skelton of Richmond, Virginia who would 
reorganize the company as the Georgia and Alabama Railway in 1895. 
Samuel Hawkins went on to lose nearly $1 million of his own money in an 
unsuccessful attempt to keep the railroad under local control. 
Nevertheless, the railroad he initially founded proved vital to the 
southwest Georgia community as it provided jobs, trade, freight 
transportation, as well as an economic engine for the budding towns and 
cities across southwest Georgia and Alabama.
  At the start of the Twenty-first Century, local residents of the 
southwest Georgia region developed plans to revive the former SAM 
Railway as a passenger excursion route. By 2002, the excursion founders 
had recovered and refurbished several state-owned vintage railcars to 
seat up to eighty people. They rebranded

[[Page E1135]]

the railway as the Historic SAM Shortline Railroad to honor the rich 
history that shaped the region. The reborn SAM Shortline Excursion 
Train follows the legendary route from Cordele to Plains and gives 
riders scenic views of cotton fields, pecan groves, and peanut farms 
while riding in climate-controlled, train cars to visit sites such as 
the Georgia Rural Telephone Museum, Historic Downtown Americus, 
President Jimmy Carter's hometown of Plains and his boyhood home and 
farm in Archery, Georgia.
  Being Georgia's only rolling state park, the excursion train hosted 
an impressive passenger load in 2021, even despite the COVID-19 
pandemic. That year alone, the SAM Shortline Excursion Train boarded 
17,000 passengers who were able to experience the fascinating history 
of President Carter's several political campaigns and life, as well as 
a glimpse of rural life at the turn of the Twentieth Century. The SAM 
Shortline also offers special rides throughout the year, including 
Halloween trick-or-treat trains, Christmas trains, dinner trains, and 
fundraisers, marking it a community treasure to be enjoyed by all 
throughout the year. The success and immense popularity of the 
excursion train resulted in an impressive economic impact of 
$2,697,496.00 across Sumter and Crisp Counties in 2021.
  Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join my wife, Vivian; and me, 
along with the more than 730,000 people of the Second Congressional 
District, in recognizing the Historic SAM Shortline Railroad for twenty 
wonderful years of bringing people closer to southwest Georgia's 
beautiful landscape and rich history.

                          ____________________