Lil Hoofs Farm - FOR SALE
The story of "Red Dog Road."
Excerpts from The Cochran Journal March 21, 2001
In April of 1928 The Dannenburg Company in Macon made a land deed to Peyton T. Anderson, W.M. Collins, Roy W. Moore and Chas C Harrold regarding 1,483 acres of land in the 24th Land District of Bleckley and Twiggs Counties, Georgia.
Legend has it that between April and December of that year, Peyton t. Anderson acquired all the land by winning a card game of chance known as "Red Dog".
Anderson was an acclaimed newspaper man who owned the Macon Telegraph but must have also been a pretty good poker player! Anyway, by December of 1928, Anderson had conveyed the land to a new Georgia corporation entitled Belle Aire Farms, Inc. and the road leading from the Macon highway to the farm was named Red Dog Road. The first sign identifying the road had a picture of a red dog on it, but through the years, the signs for Red Dog Road have either been stolen or disappeared.
Peyton Anderson built a club house on Red Dog Farm and used it as a "get away" from Macon for many years. In 1940 2 miles of Red Dog road was paved by the highway department. In 1946, the Red Dog Airport Airways, Inc., opened with an airport consisting of two perpendicular runways. One was 2,604 feet long and the other was 1,066 feet long.
A favorite story that Mr. Anderson related is about a Macon Telegraph employee named Susan Myrick. Susan was one of the consultants from Georgia in the filming of Gone with the Wind in Hollywood California, in 1938-39. Pictures of the sets would be mailed to her for review and comment. She phoned the set director that the Georgia red clay was the wrong color. He asked her to sent him something to show the correct color of red to use. The story goes that on a weekend trip to Red Dog Farm, Mr. Anderson brought her back a pint jar of dirt which she boxed up and mailed to California for use in developing the set of the movie.
Through the years I have seen the movie several times and I always think about the small role of our local community had and the historical significance of the road I travel every day, in the making of the greatest motion picture of all time.