Warner Robins is about to celebrate its diamond anniversary!
Executive director at the Warner Robins Visitors Bureau, Marsha Buzzell, reminisces on the International City, a city that started with railroad tracks.
Its trains brought troops to Warner Robins in 1943. Those troops would help grow the town into what it is today.
"We like to call ourselves 'Warner Robins, the town of planes, trains, and heroes,'" Buzzell said.
These heroes now live and work in Warner Robins, but it's also where they work that’s helped the town soar.
Robins Air Force Base landed in the city after a debate of where the base should go. Other towns considered for the base included Milledgeville and Valdosta.
However, the original name wasn't permanent and the base wasn't always called Warner Robins.
"That property over there was dairy farms, but it was named York," Buzzell said.
But just as General Augustine Warner Robins commanded troops, tradition commanded the name change.
"The tradition at the time was that the military base would be named after a person, and so for the city to be named after Robins, the base had to be called Robins," Buzzell said.
From trains to planes, Warner Robins continues to grow and bring people back.
"I can tell you, people return here, they're stationed here, they leave," Buzzell continued, "I'm an example -- I left and then came back in the late '80s [and] opened up my own business.”
And now those who call Warner Robins home will celebrate 75 years of history and many more to come.
The celebration will take place on Sunday, March 4, from 1-4 p.m.