In 1969, the Rotary Club of Cordele initiated a project to bring a 98-foot missile from California to Cordele, instantly making it a landmark. The massive missile monument is no model built to scale, nor is it a replica. The Titan I Missile is the real thing.

Past President John S. Pate, a retired fighter pilot and had strong ties to the military, initiated the project. He was the incoming president of the club in 1967, when the Cold War and the Vietnam War were at their height. I-75 was brand new and gasoline cost less than 20 cents a gallon. “We were trying to come up with something that would make our community stand out,” Pate said. “I had visited Cape Kennedy that year and learned the Air Force was decommissioning the Titan missiles.”

But it wasn’t that simple. The missile had to be dismantled and shipped cross country to Robins Air Force Base then down to Crisp County. "It was a dream for several years for the Rotary Club. It was a lot of planning, and a lot of fundraising to make this happen," Past President Bob Evans said.

Pate was able to secure the loan of a missile from the U.S. Air Force, Tony and Martha Jane LaPorte donated a plot of land, and the Rotary Club raised money to buy materials that were crafted by workers at Harris Press (now Harris Waste Management) into a base for the rocket. And the community rose to the occasion, as families donated land, money, time and services to bring this missile home. And since it reached it’s final destination, tourism exploded.

"The investment has paid dividend for 50 years now for Cordele and Crisp County," Evans said. "All the tourists riding up I-75 and down I-75. They see the missile and it's an attraction to bring people into Cordele to buy their gasoline and have their meals in our restaurants and stay into our motels."

Dooley County native and current Club President Lauren Fletcher says the Titan 1 Missile was her landmark to help people navigate through middle Georgia.

"When I went off to school in Georgia, people didn't always know where Vienna was," she said. "But when I would tell them that town with that missile at it, I'm able to tell them how close I am to that. So that was a way for me to connect with people from Atlanta and others states who travel south on I-75 and see it."