Southwest Georgia prepares for annual High Cotton 65-mile yard sale

EDISON — On the second Saturday of each November, a yard sale takes over state highway 37 from Ft. Gaines to Camilla.

Sixty-five miles worth of quirky trinkets, hand-made goods and home-cooked food greet thousands of visitors each year in Calhoun, Clay, Baker and Mitchell counties. The Southwest Georgia High Cotton 65-Mile Yard Sale begins at 7 a.m. Saturday and runs, rain or shine, until vendors start to fizzle out.

The yard sale began in 2007 and is the “baby” of Richard West, the former owner of West Foods IGA in Edison. The annual sale is the first Georgia regional yard sale south of Macon.

Sixteen years ago, West attended a 100-mile yard sale in Gilbert County, he said. As he shopped around, he started to think about how individuals in his home county, Calhoun, could create their own sale.

He’s lived in the community for many years and is always trying to find ways to support it, he said. He called a friend, asking the distance between Ft. Gaines and Camilla.

“She called back and said to me ‘65 miles,’ and I thought, ‘Well, that would be a good idea to have a 65-mile yard sale,’” West said. “And we did that.”

West trademarked the name and registered the event with the state the same year, he said. He rents out spaces to vendors in the lot next to West IGA and sells foods like hot dogs and burgers himself.

The event has grown each year, West said, noting it brings people in from out of town and gives local people a chance to make some money by selling their own goods. Since its creation, it has inspired other regional yard sales like the 100-Mile Peanut Pickin’ Yard Sale.

The former Calhoun County Family Connections Coordinator Alicia (who asked that her last name not be used in this story) helped West bring the yard sale to life. She worked with Calhoun County leadership and included Baker, Clay and Mitchell counties as well.

They chose state highway 37 because it’s busy and runs all the way from the east to the west, Alicia said. While the “High Cotton Yard Sale” name is reflective of the region’s only industry, she said, the yard sale is meant to show people that there’s more to the region than just cotton and peanut fields.

“We really don’t have any industry so we were trying to get people here for a day trip to come see our area,” Alicia said. “We’ve got such a sweet county … and a lot of good folks that work really hard.”

Shoppers can find everything from farm equipment to antiques to home-made pies and more. Online boutiques showcase their clothes and jewelry. People sell upcycled furniture or jars of jams and sauces. There are small business owners or people who just cleared out their garage and everything in between, Alicia said.

Many of the towns along the route are small and rural. Edison, what Alicia called “the epicenter of the sale,” has only about 1,500 residents.

The yard sale brings thousands of visitors, she said, adding it’s a way for people to connect, make extra cash for the holidays or find holiday gifts. It also brings people into the community and into local businesses who would’ve had no other reason to come.

“It’s just amazing to see bumper-to-bumper traffic in Edison, Georgia, every year,” Alicia said. “It’s thrilling.”

Over on the opposite end of the 65-mile stretch, Camilla is preparing for its own portion of the big sale, “The Camilla Yard Sale.” It spans across the intersection of Highway 37 and U.S. Highway 19.

It’s a major tourism event for the city and county, Don Gray, Camilla’s chamber director, said — a greater one than he ever thought it would become.

Each year the city receives hundreds of phone calls regarding the yard sale, from interested vendors and people from outside of town looking to plan weekend trips to attend the sale, he said.

Camilla’s portion has a different name this year due to a lack of coordination between counties, Gray said. There used to be an organized board featuring county leaders who worked together to put on the yard sale, he said, but since the COVID-19 pandemic, the board stopped meeting.

Gray said he reached out to the western county organizers but didn’t hear back.

However, the Camilla yard sale will remain along the same highway and run from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. like the other counties, Gray said.

“We’ll just be a starting point for what they do,” he said. “We’re still trying to please people as best we can.”

Amanda Milner, Calhoun county’s clerk, said the yard sale is still very much a partnership between counties

“It’s an ‘everyone involved’ event,” she said.

The yard sale originated in Calhoun County, so the county takes the lead in advertising, she said. There’s no one person who organizes everything.

In Calhoun, some vendors are already setting up their spots. There’s no official registration to be a vendor, the county just asks people to make agreements with property owners. Cities along the path will have rest stops, Milner said. People should expect a lot of traffic and should drive cautiously, looking out for pedestrians.

“Patience is going to be a virtue this weekend,” she said.

In Camilla, vendors had to fill out applications to the chamber to set up in the downtown and city limits. These spots are free, Gray said.

Larger vendors like food trucks will mostly be at the Mitchell County High School in paid-for spots, he said.

While none of the counties receives money directly from the event, the added tourism and spending at local establishments benefits the counties, Milner said.

“We’re excited to bring people to this corner of Georgia,” she said.