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32°50′06″N 82°56′24″W / 32.8350°N 82.9400°W | |
Location | Washington County, Georgia, United States |
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Designer | Harold Lawrence |
Fabricator | Galen Mills |
Type | Historical marker |
Material | Granite |
Height | 6 feet (1.8 m) |
Dedicated date | October 18, 1992 |
Dedicated to | The people of Washington County who helped rescue a pig from a well in 1933 |
The Pig Monument is a monument in Washington County, Georgia, United States. The monument, which is a 6-foot (1.8 m) granite historical marker, honors the county residents who, in 1933, helped a local farmer to rescue a pig of his that had fallen down a 40 ft (12 m) dry well. The monument was conceived of by a local pastor and author who had heard of the story several decades later and was dedicated in 1992.
In 1933, during the Great Depression, Bartow Barron, a farmer from Washington County, Georgia, lost his Duroc pig, which he was raising for meat for the winter. [1] After searching for it, he found the pig at the bottom of a collapsed dry well that was 40 ft (12 m) deep. [1] Barron decided to rescue the pig by slowly filling in the well with dirt, and many of his neighbors, who were also farmers, decided to help him with this. [1] [2] After 12 days of shoveling dirt, the well had been filled in enough that the pig was able to come out of the well. [1]
About 60 years after the event, Harold Lawrence, a local priest at First Methodist Church in nearby Milledgeville, Georgia, was collecting stories for a book of poetry about the region, Southland and Other Poems of the South, when a member of congregation told him about the pig story and took him to the location of the still-standing abandoned well, which by the 1990s had become a pine plantation. [1] Lawrence included the story in his book, published in 1992, [3] and decided to erect a monument honoring the event near the well. [1] Lawrence contacted Galen Mills of Elberton, Georgia, to construct the monument, based on an overall design by Lawrence himself. [1] The land for the monument was provided by the current property owners. [1] The monument was dedicated on October 18, 1992, [4] with speakers at the ceremony including Lawrence, Wesley Pittman (the congregant who took Lawrence to the site), a professor from Emory University, and the mayor of the nearby city of Oconee. [1] The monument was officially unveiled by several children who removed a black veil from the structure. [1] As of 2017, the monument is maintained by the descendants of the people who were involved in the 1933 event, as well as by several professors from Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville. [2]
The monument is a 6 ft (1.8 m)-tall granite slab. [2] [4] The slab bears the following inscription: [1]
ON THIS SPOT IN 1933 DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION NEIGHBORS OF A FARMER NAMED BARTOW BARRON JOINED TOGETHER TO RESCUE HIS PIG FROM A DRY WELL. THIS MONUMENT IS ERECTED TO THE SPIRIT OF FRIENDSHIP AND COMMUNITY SO CHARACTERISTIC OF THOSE TIMES.
Additionally, the monument bears the names of donors to the project. [1]
It is located in Washington County, near the cities of Oconee and Tennille, about 20 ft (6.1 m) off of Georgia State Route 272. [2] A road sign indicating the location reads "PIG MONUMENT". [5]