Superintendent’s Corner
by Gia Wagner

Greetings from Andersonville. We are so grateful for another highly successful Wreaths Across America event to top off what has been a very productive year at the national historic site. As always, we could not have made much progress without the steadfast support of the Friends of Andersonville and our other partners.

Highlights from this year include the letting of a contract to open Section Q in the national cemetery. We are desperate for that additional space that should see us through the next 7-10 years of casketed burials. We anticipate the project will start sometime in March 2025 and take about 2 months to complete. Our staff also made emergency repairs to the area north of the museum parking lot that had catastrophic erosion last spring at the drainage outfall that would have caused the loss of some parking spaces and expensive repairs. We had plans to spend on $800,000 on the repairs prior to the failure, but our staff’s work ethic, experience, and initiative saved the NPS these funds. We are very proud of them! The area remains closed to the public while we ensure it is safe.

The Interpretive Division transformed our social media and on-line presence and effectiveness in 2024.
• Facebook: Facebook Profile Visits: 48.8K (increase of 190.8%); followers: 24K.
• Instagram: Instagram Profile Visits: 1.4K; Content interactions: 3.3k (increase of 100%); Followers: 2.3K; Link Clicks: 22 (increase of 100%); Published Content: Stories 185, Posts 120 (increase of 263.1%);
• Website: Site Views: 191,993; Audio/Video: 1,857 plays.
• Additionally, they conducted 77 live programs for nearly 3,000 students and 14 off-site programs with over 700 attendees.

We recently developed a WWII travelling trunk to send to schools upon request; the first run to Middle Georgia State University reached 70 students. The college students, especially the Aviation majors, were fascinated by the items and learning that they were directly connected to a WWII pilot. The rangers are excited that this recent donation, while not appropriate for our museum collection, is able to tell a whole story of the aviator connected to the items, which included a uniform hat, POW and Purple Heart medals, a picture with his plane, and a map of German POW camps. Based on positive feedback, staff are working towards developing a travelling trunk for each conflict.

A total of 422 items were cataloged this fiscal year including 30 history items, 388 archival items, and 4 art objects. We received 13 new donations in 2024. We are grateful to have Dana on staff, she a wonderful addition to our team.

The park is looking forward to another productive year in 2025. As always, we appreciate your ongoing support and we look forward to seeing you in April.