Crawfordsville, Georgia Home to “Sweet Home Alabama”

As I’ve mentioned before Hamburg State Park is a satellite Park, with the managing park being A.H.  Stephen State Park located just outside Crawfordsville, Georgia. I’ve been to A. H. Stevens Park several times over the last month for different reasons. At the time I didn’t realize Crawfordsville has been the backdrop for many different movies over the years. Over a dozen movies have been filmed in part or all in Crawfordsville or Taliaferro County, you can find more information here.

Crawfordsville is the county seat for Taliaferro County, one of the poorest counties in the state of Georgia. But this area has been the backdrop for many films dating back to the 1970s. One of the most recent aired in 2002,” Sweet Home Alabama”. The movie in its entirety was filmed in different parts of Georgia and you can find some of the highlights on this website. Crawfordsville with its beautiful “High Victorian-style Courthouse”, was featured as Melanie’s hometown played by actress “Reese Witherspoon”. The movie ”Sweet Home Alabama” being filmed in 2001, was followed by two others “Pushing Up Daisies” in 2007 and “Get Low” in 2009. But today every time I’ve been the town you could shoot a cannon down the streets and not hit anyone. There are very few shops that have businesses anymore, like so many small towns across America. But at one point in history this was a thriving busy little city. But today’s population is under 600 and most of the business is done in nearby communities. It still the active County seat with government offices in town and a new courtroom and other County offices across the street, from the old courthouse, these new offices are handicap accessible.

But as you can tell from these photos it’s virtually a ghost town. That being said the town makes for a good movie set because it has good streets, it is easily accessible from Interstate 20, but does not have much traffic. On the edge of town you can go to a fine barbecue restaurant, (or should I say dive) named “Heavy’s”. It was also featured in the movie “Sweet Home Alabama”.

The maintenance guy at our Park, “Mike” lives just outside Crawfordsville, and had mentioned that “Heavy’s” has very good food more than once. They are only open Friday, Saturday and Sundays. On a Saturday a few weeks back I stopped and got a barbecued rib sandwich to go, that was excellent. At the time I didn’t realize that this restaurant and the surrounding area, was somewhat made famous by the movie industry. Heavy’s was made into the bar featured in the movie “Sweet Home Alabama”. When you first pulled in the parking lot, you are treated to very cluttered and interesting setting. There are lots of old vehicles and farm equipment scattered all about. A couple of very cool Coca-Cola vehicles. As you may or may not know Georgia is home to the Coca-Cola beverage. First being formulated by “John Pemberton” in Columbus, Georgia back in the late 1800s, find more about it here. There’s an old still.

And the restaurant was rented for a couple weeks by the movie company and turned into the bar featured in the movie. Stella’s Roadhouse in the movie. Here’s a couple of the original signs from the movie. But as you walk into the place today you are featured with a uniquely decorated little bit of Southern history. I love all the deer dress for Christmas.

They’ve got a really cool fireplace in the back room, and one time I was in here they had a blazing fire going. I’ve stopped here twice to get sandwiches to go, once the rib sandwich mentioned above and the second time I got a pulled pork sandwich which was also excellent. I’m sure I’ll be stopping here again and next time I wanted dining in to enjoy the unique amnions. One other thing that you find in this area and much of Georgia is pecan groves. As you drive around the countryside you’ll find large and small ones like this. This time of year they are busy gathering all the pecans. But you don’t want to jump the fence and pick up a bag full for yourself because it carries a hefty fine as you can tell from the sign.

Speaking about trees one day last week, on a calm sunny day. I was sitting at rig when my friends and cohosts Stan and Tammy drove up to inform me that a tree had fallen across the road in the park. This must’ve happened within the last half hour because I had just been down the road and there was nothing down. So Stanley and I jumped on the cart to go clean it up and this is what we found. It didn’t take long to cut it up and hauled off with the tractor but that’s just part of our duties here as volunteer hosts. There was no regular park employee on duty that day. This happened on a day that wasn’t busy, but if it would’ve been a busy day no one on would have been able to get back to the campground, because it completely blocked the road. Next week my oldest daughter Crystal will be coming down to visit and I have some plans of exciting things to do. So look for more to come on our adventures next week, to be featured in my upcoming post’s. That’s it for now best wishes and safe travels to all, Rick

Advertisement