This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5,2003
* "'H ..............
te* v^f-to*
■£V ■..'
-fV.	v:
r ■■■•■■ tir-i- «3;i(»■<**('> . _
P31B
•V"=	^	!«
THE
OF LOG
BY BENNIE SHALLBETTER Staff Writer
This is the. first of a two part series of the memories of several friends who grew up in Logtown.
The area that used to be Logtown in the western part of Hancock County probably just looks like a bunch of overgrown trees to most people just passing through.
Not many would give much thought to turning off on one of the little roads, now full of potholes, that wind through the woods and down to the river at Logtown or to the area that u^d to be called The Point.
ut the only thing that people wander off the main road to do these days is to dump trash, 'mu’ch' Y6“ the - disdain of former residents.
The area has been deserted since the mid 1960s when the last residents reluctantly left after
Echo staff photos by Bennie Shallbetter
Friends, and sisters, for life. Sister Mary Acker of Gainesville, left, Sister Lillie Sams of Logtown, center, and Sister Lillian Rogers of Logtown, right, all grew up along the Pearl River in West Hancock in the communities that were lost to the world when Stennis Space Center cleared the way for its rocket testing facility in the 1960s.
NASA took over their land and their homes to build Stennis Space Center.
Now, for those who lived in, and loved Logtown,
the world behind.
Some cynics say that memories of Logtown, and indeed the entire buffer zone area, are only so posi-
ftlieif»'&!6mones^'ftave’kele-^tTve^becauTe‘tIjey--kre''s6,far vated that patch of woods in th^p-f^st,-. that* Uie , pl&qfj*
to a magical place where people got along, helped one another, loved their fellow man, and left the rest of
there have been elevated to a mythical standing. But if that is true, than it is a myth that all the former
residents seemingly hold in common memory. No, it is more likely that the truth is, that when the residents of the little towns and communities along the Pearl River were forced to move to make way for the space age, that like many places before' them, a way of life was lost.	^
Yes, I am sure that the memories are real and the places were just as people remember them because I (know that they have become read forr'tne' during the times I have been lucky enough to spend time in the buffer zone with the people
LADIES--4B
iTilTi i 1 i n
Mes
Of Hancock County
Memories of a time gone by at the black cemetery at The Point in Logtown
Sister Lillie Sams, left, visits the grave of her husband of 53 years, the Rev. Robert Sams. Her place awaits next to him. Ironically, the grave yards ire the last connection that many of the past residents have of the lost communities along the Pearl River. Rather than a place of sorrow, for many, they have become a place to remember happy times.