The four lanes of U.S. Route 84 cut through rural South Georgia. You’ll pass country churches, body shops, gas stations, convenience stores, farms, agricultural equipment dealers, skirt the downtown Cairo (home of the Syrupmakers high-school football team), before reaching Broad Avenue and the town limits of Whigham – population 428 as of the 2020 census. Having driven through the town several times over the years on my way to someplace else, and with Whigham’s total area of 1.2 miles overshadowed by a few blocks of derelict storefronts, you’d think it would be pretty easy to find a business that is still in operation.