General Resources Survey (1931)

The Liberty County Chamber of Commerce in 1931 sponsored a mass meeting of citizens in the Liberty County Courthouse, to let them decide whether they wanted to join with other coastal counties in accomplishing a “general resources survey.” Principal speaker at the meeting was F.H. Abbott, secretary of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce, who explained how coastal Georgia would benefit from such a survey.

High on a list of possible remedies for the economic de­pression was a food freezing plant in each county to preserve for distant markets, various perishable farm products.

C.B. Jones, D.C. Darsey, Joseph B. Fraser Jr., D.S. Owen, and H.C. Saunders were appointed members of a committee by the Liberty County Chamber of Commerce to raise neces­sary funds to do the survey. But this action did nothing to provide immediate relief for the suffering people of Liberty County. Prices for farm and forest products had already dropped by as much as 75 percent. In many cases there were no markets at all for those products.

The general resources survey was conducted. It resulted in a “freezer locker” adjacent to the National Guard Armory in Hinesville. Farmers and fishermen could bring their pro­ducts there to be packaged and frozen. By the time the facility was built, however, the economic depression in America was coming to an end, and it was never fully utilized for the pur­pose it was originally intended.