MACON, Ga. — Could 2024 be the year Macon's Ocmulgee Mounds becomes the state's first national park? On Tuesday, members of Georgia's congressional delegation in Washington filed a bill to create the Ocmulgee Mounds National Park and Preserve.
It received bipartisan support from lawmakers. The bill includes a new map for the project. In November, a National Park study said buying a lot of land for the project may not be financially feasible, so they landed on this new target area. The project goes from Macon all the way down to Twiggs County.
The bill would allow the park service to buy the land they need from any willing sellers, but they can't use eminent domain to take land for the park.
Some Central Georgia leaders and representatives hope to protect some of the ancestral lands of the Muscogee tribe. About 700 acres surrounding seven mounds have been federally protected since 1936.
Bob Peacock was out on the Ocmulgee River Wednesday fishing. He was out practicing for a weekend tournament on the water at the Twiggs/ Houston County line.
"We did actually catch some. We didn't catch the size we were looking for but we're coming back on Friday," he shared.
It was Peacock's first time out on those waters, and he was happy to know it could soon be home to the state's first national park.
"We would get state funding, federal funding to help maintain our rivers keep safe boating great fishing," he said.
Leaders see Wednesday's filing as a big accomplishment across Central Georgia.
"From Bibb, Houston, and Twiggs counties to bring this and see this come to the floor, and we hope to see it to a vote," Judy Sherling with the Development Authority of Jeffersonville and Twiggs County.
Sherling says Seth Clark, the executive director of the Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative, has helped push forward the effort and keep all of the counties involved. She says sitting off of major highways will be a big economic boost and an opportunity for folks to come enjoy the green space and businesses their area has to offer.
"We anticipate growth coming to our county from the park itself and from the supporting businesses that will be located near the park," Sherling shared.
That growth will switch up the dynamics for local leisure fisher, Norman Faulk.
"I'm a local. This is close to home. I can be down here in 15 -20 minutes and turn around and be back home," Faulk says.
However, he says growth in the county isn't something he would love to see.
"I like things the way they are. I'm conservative. I always have been. I guess I always will be," he shared.
For people like Peacock and Faulk who enjoy fishing, this bill says that hunting and fishing would still be allowed in the park, but there could be some areas where it would be prohibited.
The bill also breaks down leadership efforts. They want to create a 9-person advisory council that will oversee management and preservation. The Muscogee Creek tribe will play a big hand in the project.