The William B. Bankhead National Forest, formerly the Black Warrior

National Forest, is in the northwest. The Tuskegee, smallest of the

national forests, is in the east, and the Conecuh is in the south.

State parks and forests total about 30. They are planned to conserve the

natural beauty of the state and to provide places where people may go for

outdoor recreation—picnicking, camping, hiking and nature study, fishing

and other water sports.

Other Attractions

The following are among other places that attract visitors from all over

the nation and the world:

Ave Maria Grotto, at St. Bernard, near Cull-man, displays more than 100

small reproductions of famous religious buildings of the world.

The Azalea Trail, in Mobile, is a 55-kilometer (35-mile) trail of flowers

that leads through residential parts of the city, past historic homes and

buildings.

Bellingrath Gardens and Home, south of Mobile, is a beautifully

"landscaped estate. Here the finest flowers, shrubs, and trees have been

brought together in a setting of great natural beauty. The home is noted

for its rich furnishings and priceless art objects.

Cathedral Caverns, north ofGuntersville, contains a large forest of

stalagmites and one cavern 27 meters (90 feet) deep.

Ivy Green, in Tuscumbia, is Helen Keller's birthplace and childhood home.

Vulcan Statue, at the summit of Red Mountain, Birmingham, is a statue of

the god of fire. It was made of iron from the local area and is said to be

one of the largest statues in the world.

Annual Events

Many of Alabama's annual events center upon sports, the products of the

state, and the interests and traditions of the people. From the early

French settlers. Mobile inherited the celebration of Mardi Gras. Mobile's

Mardi Gras festival is the oldest such celebration in the United States. It

begins on the Friday before the first day of Lent and reaches its high

point on the night of Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras.

Mobile celebrates the azalea season from late February to early April,

when thousands of visitors tour the Azalea Trail. The Deep-Sea Fishing

Rodeo, at Mobile and Dauphin Island, climaxes the fishing season, usually

late in July or early in August.

Other events include the state fair at Birmingham, in September, and the

River Boat Regatta at Guntersville, in August.

CITIES

No one region claims all or most of the cities. Large cities are found in

each part of the state—central, north and south.

Montgomery

Besides being the capital, Montgomery is a center of agricultural trade

and the leading cattle market of southeastern United States. The large

ranches and herds of cattle in the area remind one of Texas. Industries of

the city include textile mills, meat-packing plants, and furniture

factories.

Montgomery has several institutions of higher education, including

Alabama State University, campuses of Troy State and Auburn universities,

and Huntingdon College, a private senior college. The Air University at

Maxwell Air Force Base is a national center for research and for education

and training of U.S. Air Force personnel.

Birmingham

Alabama's largest city is located at the southern end of the Ridge and

Valley Region. It is sometimes called the Magic City because of its rapid

growth. Since it was founded in 1871 as the town of Ely ton, it has grown

into a metropolitan area of about 850,000 people. It is the South's only

major producer of iron and steel. The hundreds of other industries in the

area manufacture such items as cast-iron pipe, heavy machinery, chemicals,

textiles, and wood and paper products.

Birmingham is a leading educational and cultural center. It is also noted

for mountain scenery and places of outdoor recreation.

Mobile

The second-largest city and only seaport is known as Alabama's Gateway to

the World. It was founded by the French and was named for the Mobile

Indians, who lived in the area. Today it is a busy industrial center with

chemical plants, shipyards, and seafood industries. It is also a gracious

and beautiful resort city, known for its flowers and ancient oak trees

draped with Spanish moss.

Other Cities

The following are some of the other important cities:

Huntsville, now the Rocket City, was one of Alabama's first settlements.

It remained a small farming community for more than 125 years. Its

population was only 16,000 in 1950. About that time the Army began to

develop a rocket and guided-missile center at the Redstone Arsenal at

Huntsville. Thousands of scientists and other workers came to the area. So

did dozens of new industries. Within 20 years Huntsville's population

increased to more than 135,000. In 1960 a part of the arsenal was

transferred to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This part

was named the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center.

Tuscaloosa, the home of the University of Alabama, is located on the

Black Warrior River at the edge of the Appalachian Plateau. Its name comes

from the Indian words tuska, meaning "black," and lusa, meaning "warrior."

The city's many industries include a large paper mill, a rubber-tire plant,

textile mills, oil refineries, and plants that make metal products.

Gailstleii, northeast of Birmingham, is an important iron and steel

center, as well as a distribution point for livestock and grain produced in

the surrounding area.

Duthan, leading city of southeastern Alabama, is located in a rich

farming area. The main crop is peanuts. Industries in the city manufacture

such products as peanut oil, hosiery, and cigars.

GOVERNMENT

The legislative department of the state government is made up of the

Senate and the House of Representatives. The members of both bodies serve 4-

year terms. An amendment to the state constitution, adopted in 1975,

provided for annual legislative sessions, beginning in 1976. Before that,

regular sessions had been held every other year.

The chief executive is the governor, who is elected by the people. The

people also elect a lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney

general, treasurer, auditor, and commissioner of agriculture and industry,

as well as the members of the state board of education.

The highest state court is the supreme court. It consists of a chief

justice and eight associate justices elected statewide for 6-year terms.

The court of appeals is divided into two courts, one to hear civil appeals

and one to hear criminal appeals. The major trial courts in Alabama are its

numerous circuit courts.

GOVERNMENT

Capital—Montgomery. Number of counties—67. Representation in Congress—U.S.

senators, 2; U.S. representatives, 7. State Legislature—Senate, 35

members; House of Representatives, 105 members;

all 4-year terms. Governor—4-year term. Elections— Primary elections to

select candidates, first Tuesday in May; general and state elections,

Tuesday after first Monday in November

The state is divided into 67 counties. Each county is governed by a board

of commissioners, known as the county commission.

FAMOUS PEOPLE

Alabama claims many persons who did important work in government,

education, the law, military affairs, business, and the arts. The following

are some of the honored names:

William Wyatt Bibb (1781-1820) was Alabama's only territorial governor

and the first governor of the state. He was born in Georgia.

Josiah Gorgas (1818-83), born in Pennsylvania, was a teacher and an army

officer. He became an Alabamian after his marriage to Amelia Gayle,

daughter of John Gayle, governor of Alabama from 1831 to 1835. During the

Civil War, Josiah Gorgas was chief of military supplies, and eventually a

brigadier general, in the Confederate Army. Later he served for a year as

president of the University of Alabama. His son, William C. Gorgas (1854-

1920), who was born near Mobile, is world famous as the U.S. Army surgeon

and sanitation expert who stamped out yellow fever in the Canal Zone and

made possible the building of the Panama Canal.

Julia Strudwick Tufwiler (1841-1916) was born in Greene County. She

established several girls' vocational schools and secured admission of

women to the University of Alabama. She was also active in prison reform.

She wrote the words of "Alabama," the state song.

Booker T. Washington (1856-1915) is known throughout the world as the

founder of Tuskegec Institute and as an educator, author, and lecturer. He

was born in Virginia and was educated at Hampton Institute. His biography

is included in Volume W.

George Washington Carver (1864-1943), botanist and agricultural scientist,

gained international fame for his work in agricultural research at Tuskegee

Institute. He taught improvement of the soil and developed hundreds of

products from the peanut, sweet potato, and soybean. A biography of George

Washington Carver, who was born in Missouri and educated in Iowa, is

included in Volume C.

William Brockman Bankhead (1874-1940) was born in Moscow (now Sulligent),

Alabama. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1917 to 1940.

He was speaker of the House from 1936 to 1940. His daughter, Tallulah

Brockman Bankhead, became one of America's best-known actresses. His

father, John H. Bank-head, and his brother, John H. Bankhead, Jr., were

both U.S. senators.

Helen Adams Keller, who was born in Tus-cumbia in 1880, lost both sight

and hearing before she was 2 years old. Because she could not hear, she

also lost the ability to speak. In spite of her disabilities, she gained an

education, learned to speak, and then spent her life lecturing and writing

to raise money for the training of other disabled persons. Her biography is

included in Volume K.

George Corley Wallace (1919- ) was born in Clio, Alabama. He was a judge

and state legislator before his election in 1962 as governor of Alabama. He

was re-elected to that office in 1970, 1974, and 1982. He was also a

presidential candidate in 1964, 1968, 1972, and 1976. A bullet from an

assassination attempt during the 1972 campaign left him disabled.

Three Alabamians have become justices of the U.S. Supreme Court. Justices

John McKinley and John A. Campbell, who served during the I 800's, were

born in other states. Hugo L. Black, who became a justice in 1937, was born

in Clay County, Alabama.

Writers, musicians, and entertainers who were born in Alabama include

novelists Nelle Harper Lee (Monroeville) and Bordcn Deal(Tuscaloosa),

composer William C. Handy (Florence), and singer Nat "King" Cole

(Montgomery).

Famous names in sports include heavyweight champion Joe Louis (born Joe

Louis Barrow, Lafayette); baseball players Henry "Hank" Aaron (Mobile),

Frank Lary (North-port), and Willie Mays (Fairfield); and sports announcer

Mel Alien (born Melvin Alien Israel, Birmingham).

HISTORY

At the time of Columbus, Alabama was inhabited by four main groups of

Indians. They were the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws.

Sometimes there were skirmishes resulting from border disputes. But usually

the Indians lived in peace, hunting, fishing, and raising corn and

vegetables on small plots of land.

Exploration and Settlement

During the early 1500's Spanish explorers sailed along the coast of the

Gulf of Mexico. But Europeans were not seen in the interior of Alabama

until 1540, when Hernando de Soto passed through with a band of well-armed

soldiers. De Soto forced the peaceful Indians to provide him with food and

servants, and his harsh methods stirred up resentment. When he reached the

land governed by the gigantic Choctaw chieftain, Tuskaloosa, he ran into

trouble. De Soto captured the chief and took him to the tribe's strongly

fortified village. Here the Indians rose up to free their chief. For many

hours the bloody battle raged. The Spanish soldiers slaughtered Indian men,

women, and children alike. When the battle was over, the village was in

ruins and its population was destroyed. De Soto's troops also suffered

heavy losses. Later, in 1559, Spanish colonists started a settlement on

Mobile Bay, but storms and other troubles caused the settlers to leave.

English traders from the Carolinas and Georgia traded with the Indians

during the late 1600's, but the English made no permanent settlements in

Alabama at that time. In 1702 the French established Fort Louis on Mobile

Bay. This settlement was moved, in 1711, to the present site of Mobile. It

became the first permanent white settlement in what is now Alabama.

During the 1700's the French and the British fought over the territory

of which Alabama was a part. After the French and Indian War, the Treaty

of Paris, in 1763, gave the territory to England. Spain, Georgia, and the

Carolinas still argued over who owned the land. It was not until 1813 that

all of what is now Alabama passed into undisputed possession of the United

States and became part of the Mississippi Territory.

After 1800 more and more settlers came into Alabama from the states on

the Atlantic Coast. The invention of the cotton gin and the growth of the

cotton textile industry in England made cotton a valuable crop. The

settlers grew cotton on most of the land that they cleared. But settling

the territory was not without its perils. Much of the good farmland was

already being used by the Indians, whose ways of living easily adapted to

the settlers' ways. The Indians resisted the theft of their lands. The

Creeks, who held more than half the land in the

|IMPORTANT DATES |

|1540 Hernando de Soto marched across Alabama, |

|exploring and searching for gold. |

|1559 Tristan de Luna, Spanish colonizer, started a |

|temporary settlement on Mobile Bay. |

|1699 An expedition under the. French explorer Pierre |

|Lemoyne, Sieur d'lberville, explored the coast and |

|claimed the area for France. |

|1702 Pierre Lemoyne's brother, Jean Baptiste Lemoyne,|

|Sieur de Bienville, founded Fort Louis de la Mobile. |

|1711 The French moved Fort Louis to the present site |

|of Mobile. |

|1763 At the end of the French and Indian War, France |

|gave the area east of the Mississippi River, |

|including Alabama, to Great Britain. |

|1783 After the Revolutionary War, Great Britain gave |

|the Mobile area to Spain and the rest of Alabama to |

|the United States. |

|1813 United States captured Mobile and added it to |

|the Mississippi Territory. |

|1814 General Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek |

|Indians. |

|1817 Congress created the Alabama Territory. |

|1819 Alabama admitted to Union December 14, as 22nd |

|state. |

|1847 Montgomery became state capital. |

|1861 Alabama seceded from the Union January 11 and |

|formed the Republic of Alabama, which lasted until |

|February 8, when Alabama joined the Confederacy. 1868|

|Alabama re-admitted to the Union. |

|1875 A new constitution adopted, ending the period of|

|Reconstruction. |

|1888 First steel produced in Birmingham. |

|1901 Present state constitution adopted. |

|1944 First petroleum produced near Gilbertown. |

|1949 Redstone Arsenal, at Huntsville, became a center|

|for rocket and missile research. |

|1970 Black Alabamians won seats (two) In the state |

|legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. |

|1981 Tuskegee Institute celebrated its 100th |

|anniversary. |

territory,were

especially bitter. They sided with the British in the War of 1812. The

Indians raided Fort Mims and killed several hundred settlers. In a final

battle at Horseshoe Bend, the Creeks were defeated, and before long they

were moved out of the territory. The Cherokees, who had remained neutral in

the war, were later moved from their lands. They were the most progressive

of the Indian tribes. They lived in brick houses, grew cotton, raised

rattle, and even had a written language.

Alabama Becomes a State

When Mississippi became a state in 1817, the eastern half of the

Mississippi Territory was removed and made the Alabama Territory. Its

capital was St. Stephens, a small town lo the north of Mobile. At that time

settlers were found mainly in three regions—in the Tennessee Valley, around

Huntsville; along Ihc Tombigbee and Black Warrior rivers, with centers at

St. Stephens and Tusca-loosa; and along the Alabama and Coosa rivers, near

such towns as Wetumpka and Montgomery.

Alabama was not a territory very long. With the approval of Congress,

leading citi-/cns met at Huntsville on July 5, 1819, and drafted Alabama's

first constitution. Soon after, on December 14, 1819, Alabama became a

state. The capital was situated at Ca-haba, a town built for just this

purpose at the junction of the Cahaba and the Alabama rivers. The choice of

this town was bad. It lay in low, swampy land that flooded regularly. In

1825 the session of the legislature could be held only on the second floor

of the capital, and the legislators had to get there by row-boat. Because

of this situation the state capital was moved in 1827 to Tuscaloosa, where

it stayed for 20 years. In 1847 the increase in wealth and political

strength of the cotton planters of the Black Belt caused another move of

the state capital—this time to Montgomery, where it is today.

King Cotton, Slavery, and the Civil War

Between 1820 and 1860 Alabama's economy was closely tied to slavery. The

large cotton plantations could not be worked profitably without slaves. In

the 1840's Alabama was one of the wealthiest states in the Union. In 1860

forces in the North moved toward

the abolition of slavery. The leaders of Alabama opposed federal

interference in the affairs of their state. They proposed secession. After

a special election among the people, a convention was held in Montgomery on

January 7, 1861. On January 11 a resolution of secession was adopted, and

Alabama invited all the other southern states to meet in Montgomery to form

a new union.

On February 4, 1861, the convention met and drew up the constitution for

the Confederate States of America. Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the

president on February 18, 1861.

During the Civil War there were many minor battles in the state. No major

battles took place within its borders, but the state was badly hurt by the

fighting. When the war was over, Alabama's economy was destroyed.

Between 1865 and 1875 Alabama lived under a partly military government

called the Reconstruction. These were harsh times— times of agricultural

failures, general poverty, and great political confusion. In 1875 a new

constitution was adopted and approved by Congress. Between 1875 and 1900

Alabama went through a period of economic recovery. Cotton was still king,

but industry grew.

Modern Times and the Future

After the Reconstruction era, blacks in Alabama were stripped of their

newly won civil rights, including the right to vote. They had to attend

different schools from whites. Racial segregation of many kinds was the law

in Alabama for a long time.

In the 1960's, however, federal legislation enabled blacks in Alabama to

vote in large numbers. Progress has also been made against many forms of

racial segregation. Much of this progress in Alabama resulted from peaceful

protest conducted under the leadership of Martin Luther King.

Alabama has undergone many other. changes recently. Industry has grown

rapidly. The state's waterways are being enlarged and improved. With its

abundance of raw mate-trials, and its vital people, Alabama should continue

to be the industrial heart of the New South.

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