MACON, Ga. — Around 1:45 p.m. on Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed a bill to officially make Ocmulgee National Monument a national park.
The United States Senate passed the bill back in mid-February.
The park already has national monument designation, but the bill also allows the park to quadruple its size, expanding from 700 acres to 2,800 acres.
Park Superintendent Jim Davis says the land they're looking to acquire is mostly farmland and trees, and belongs to a handful of people.
The Georgia Department of Transportation and Bibb County have both agreed to donate their parcels of land to the park.
The Ocmulgee National Park and Preserve Initiative estimates they'd need $2 million to $3 million to buy the other properties.
They've already raised $1 million and expect the expansion to be completed in a year.
Lindsay Holliday, a decades long volunteer of the Ocmulgee National Monument Association, said the national park status will bring more international visitors to Macon.
"They come to America. They look at a big map and say 'I'm going to go visit the national parks, oh here's one in Georgia.' They're gonna be here in Georgia simply because we're on the map of national parks," Holliday said.
David says they'd love to add additional trails, another canoe ramp along the Ocmulgee River and look for additional Indian artifacts on surrounding properties.
This is David's last year before he retires, and he says he's happy to see his dream coming true.
"Myself and a lot of people have put in a lot of time, a lot of effort hoping to see this go through and so to see 10, 15 years of work come to fruition is a wonderful feeling," David said.
The National Park Service created the Ocmulgee National Monument in 1934, and it preserves parts of a village created by Native Americans who lived on the site around 900 A.D.
*This story was updated to include quotes from Jim David and Lindsay Holliday.