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VALDOSTA — Need to know the last time an elephant was brought down in Lowndes County? Or when a future president flew planes over the area? Or when the final passenger train stopped in Valdosta? Or the county’s connection with the Columbia shuttle disaster?

All of this information and much more is available on The Valdosta Daily Times’ new Living History website, which launches Tuesday.

For several months, The Times and the Enwoven company of San Francisco, California, have been gathering and organizing the stories that make up the lifeblood of Lowndes County and Valdosta, searching archives and interviewing local historians, newsmakers and experts in the events that have shaped local history.

The site includes historic photographs, newspaper articles and video interviews on topics ranging from local civil rights struggles to reminiscences about the early years of high school football in the region.

Founding sponsors for this effort include Georgia Power, Wild Adventures Theme Park, the City of Valdosta, Lowndes County and South Georgia Medical Center. The Lowndes County Historical Society contributed many photographs and much expertise to the project.

To cruise through the past of Lowndes County and Valdosta, go to www.valdostadailytimes.com, click on “menu” and select “A Living History,” or find it directly at www.valdostadailytimes.com/community/lowndes-county-history/.

(To answer the questions raised above: a circus elephant which killed her trainer was shot in Lowndes County in 1902 after going on a rampage; George W. Bush trained for the Texas Air National Guard at Moody Air Force Base around 1970; passenger train service through Valdosta ended in October 1979; and Rick Husband, commander of the shuttle Columbia on its doomed flight in February 2003, had served at Moody for four years).

 

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.