Enjoy the Beauty of Alabama!

Summer is in full swing!  By now everyone's gone to the beach, swam in the pool and attended at least 50 backyard BBQ's.  What to do now?  Well, I have a few great suggestions!

Dayspring Dairy in Gallant, AL

How about visiting the very first licensed sheep dairy and producer of sheep milk cheeses in Alabama?  Bring a little cash with you because you'll definitely want to buy some of the cheeses that you get to sample while you're there!

Dayspring Dairy offers tours, free cheese tastings, a giftshop and you can also witness them shearing the sheep and making the cheese.  What a great way to spend a day with the kids!

Dayspring Dairy is located in Gallant, AL which is about 50(ish) miles northeast of Birmingham just before you get to Gadsden.

For more information, please visit their website:  https://www.dayspringdairy.com/

Cathedral Caverns State Park, Woodville, AL

Originally called Bat Cave, Cathedral Caverns was opened to the public by Jacob Gurley in the 1950's. The cave was renamed because of its cathedral-like appearance.  Purchased by the state in 1987, it was opened as a State Park in the summer of 2000.  The first feature most people notice about Cathedral Caverns is its massive entrance. The huge opening measures 126 feet wide and 25 feet high, a possible world record for commercial caves. The grand entrance is only the beginning. Inside the cavern are some of the most beautiful formations Mother Nature has ever created including “Goliath”- one of the largest stalagmites in the world measuring 45 feet tall and 243 feet in circumference.   Cathedral Caverns features many amazing sites:  a "caveman" perched atop a flowstone wall, a "frozen" waterfall, a large stalagmite forest and a most improbable stone formation - a stalagmite that is 27 feet tall and 3 inches wide!

For more information, please visit their website:  https://www.alapark.com/cathedral-caverns-state-park

Little River Canyon National Preserve, Gaylesville, AL

This Preserve is extremely popular with hikers.  It features several hiking trails ranging from trails for beginners all the way to trails for only the most experienced hikers.  There are also several overlook locations that are popular with photographers.

For more information please visit their website at:  https://www.nps.gov/liri/index.htm

Tigers for Tomorrow, Attalla, AL

Tigers for Tomorrow at Untamed Mountain is a non-profit 501-c-3 Wild Animal Preserve and Environmental Educational Center, home to over 160 animals including tigers, mountain lions, African lions, bears, wolves, black leopards and so many more wonderful animals. As the last stop preserve, the animals that come to live at this preserve remain here for the rest of their lives. Located on 140 acres in Dekalb County, Alabama, Untamed Mountain, home of Tigers for Tomorrow, is open to the public as a premier wild animal park and preserve, and family recreational destination, providing environmental education programming to the community and tourists of North Alabama. The Tigers for Tomorrow Mission is to uphold the highest standards of care and respect for native and exotic animals in need of secure and permanent homes.

This non-breeding preserve is home to over 175 animals, 90 of which are predators, big cats, wolves, and bears.

For more information, please visit their website:  https://www.tigersfortomorrow.org/

Dismals Canyon, Phil Campbell, AL

(photo by Adam Elliott)

(photo by Adam Elliott)

(Dismalite photo taken by Eric Maxwell)

(photo taken by John Pope)

(photo taken by Ronnie Harrie)

“Although the creatures known locally as Dismalites are “close cousins” of rare glowworms found in Australia and New Zealand, they are actually fly larvae”

— Auburn University entomologist Gary Mullen

Dismal Canyon is a place everyone should visit at least once in their life.  The light show from these creatures is beyond comparison.  During the daylight hours, the park has an incredible amount of beauty to explore.  There are rental cabins as well as camping facilities for those who want to make a weekend....or week...out of their experience.

For more information please visit their website:  https://www.dismalscanyon.com/dismalites

Now you have a few suggestions for some summertime outdoor fun!  

Enjoy!!

Horse Pen 40 - Steele Alabama

Horse Pen 40 sits atop the 3rd tallest mountain in the State of Alabama near a small town called Steele in St. Clair County about 59 miles northeast of Birmingham.  Chandler Mountain is approximately 10 miles long, covers an area of approximately 25 square miles and is nearly 1500 feet high.  It gets its name from an early settler whose land butted up against the mountain.  Other settlers discovered the mountain was rich in animals to hunt and the easiest way to get to it was on land owned by Joel Chandler so little by little people in the area referred to the mountain as Chandler Mountain.

HISTORY OF HORSE PENS 40

Horse Pens 40 has a rich history that dates back to the earliest occupation of the area.  The Indians and early white settlers saw this mountain as a huge fortress that could provide them with shelter, protection, food, and water throughout the year.  There are numerous springs and streams throughout the mountain.  Many of the earliest occupants lived under the overhangs along the streams.  During the civil war, many deserters hid out in these same overhangs.  Along the years, criminals have also hidden out beneath these overhangs to avoid capture.

Since there is a natural stone fortress high atop a fortress-like mountain, it was used by the Native Americans as a protected village and ceremonial area for thousands of years.  There have been discoveries of living and working areas as well as burial areas dating back to the Paleo (pre-Stone Age- 12,000+ years ago) and Archaic (early Stone Age - 10,000 year ago).

It is also what may be the only remaining example in the United States of an ancient leaching system.  It was used to remove the tannic acid from acorns & hickory nuts to render them edible for making meal for bread.  Normally those were temporary structures of clay, but this one is a natural stone cavity and could still be used today.

It should be noted that all areas of the Horse Pen 40 park are strictly protected under Federal law as well as closely guarded against looting, vandalism, and destruction.  They allow no digging, artifact hunting or the removal or disturbing of the ground, rocks, plants or animals.  There are several rare and endangered species of plants, animals, and birds as well as many unique rock formations throughout the park.

During the Civil War, the Horse Pen 40 area was used by the locals to hide their horses, children, and valuables from the invading troops and others who might want to steal them.  After the Confederates discovered this area, it was reportedly used as a supply depot, staging area, and Home Guard outpost.  (The Home Guards were comprised mostly of local young boys, older men and others generally deemed physically unfit for service in the regular Confederate Army). 

Later years brought the moonshiners and the outlaws who used the remoteness of the area to carry out their activities.  There are two known outlaw hideouts in the park, while many of the rock shelters would have provided perfect hiding spots for anyone who did not wish to be found.  One of the hideouts was used by the famous Alabama Outlaw Rube Burrow whenever he was in the area.

Horse Pen 40 Park

Today the top of Chandler's Mountain is the site of the Horse Pen 40 Park.  It offers year-round activities such as hiking, rock climbing, bird watching, disc golf, glass blowing, blacksmithing, yoga, multiple kid's activities, craft arts, rustic camping, rental cabins, and RV/camper areas.

They also offer multiple festivals throughout the year.  They offer a Songwriter festival, bluegrass festival, and multiple other music events.  It is said that Emmylou Harris gave her first public performance as a teenager at the Horse Pen 40.

Photo of the natural amphitheater

The views are certainly worth the hike!

If you, your friends and/or your family is trying to decide what to do some weekend, why not venture out to the Horse Pen 40 and spend a weekend?  

Woodlawn

Did you know that the Birmingham, Alabama neighborhood known as Woodlawn was once a thriving independent city with its own city hall and jail?  It was indeed!
As with anything, in order to know where Woodlawn is today, one needs to know where it came from.  The Woodlawn area of Birmingham was settled by Huguenot farmers in 1815 who traveled from South Carolina to settle in Alabama.  The leaders of this group were Obadiah Washington Wood and his son Edmond.  The Huguenot's were French Protestants of the 16th–17th centuries. Largely Calvinist, the Huguenots suffered severe persecution at the hands of the Catholic majority, and many thousands emigrated from France.

Obadiah Washington Wood

Headstone of Obadiah Washington Wood

Edmond was granted 1200 acres of his father's homestead and went on to form a small community known as Rockville in 1832.  It was just a small group of homes near the roadway.
When the railroad came through in 1870, the area was renamed Wood Station and with the advent of the railroad through this area, it began to grow.  But the end of the 1870's, Woodlawn Academy had been created to educate the children of the approximately 90 families that called Wood Station and Rockville their home.  By 1891 Wood Station was recognized by the State of Alabama and it was incorporated under the name "City of Woodlawn".  In 1895 the residents erected their first city hall and jail.
By 1910 the city of Birmingham had annexed Woodlawn but the sense of community in Woodlawn remained strong.  The Wood family had turned their estate on Georgia Avenue into a park for Woodlawn complete with a spring-fed swimming pool and named it Willow Wood Park.
In 1922 the gothic-inspired and historical Woodlawn High School opened.  It is still a thriving high school and truly a landmark in the Woodlawn area.

Woodlawn High School

 

The site of the estate of the Wood family.

The Wood family had turned this estate into a city park prior to 1910.

 

Unfortunately, in the 1970s a culmination of events saw urban blight take over.  Some of those events were the tumultuous race riots of the 1960s, white flight, the aging population in Woodlawn and the desertion of Woodlawn by its younger residents as they moved elsewhere in search of employment.

 

 

As for notables who were raised in Woodlawn, Richard D. Zanuck's wife, Lili was from Woodlawn as was Hop-a-Long Cassidy's wife, Dorothy.  Dorothy Sebastian was raised at 801 N. 49th St.  Follow the link below for a street view of what her childhood home looks like today. https://www.google.com/maps/@33.537845,-86.762978,3a,75y,90h,81.73t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sGj1X8RJ45Fi_kQ_r64RWcQ!2e0 

 

Of course, no town would be complete without a cemetery.  The Wood family still owns and maintains a private cemetery located on 57th St. N. across from the Woodlawn High School. The descendants of the founders of Woodlawn maintain the cemetery themselves.

 

 

 

 

There is another cemetery in Woodlawn.  This one is a lot larger and a bit more notorious.  It is known as Greenwood Cemetery and is located by the airport.  Some years ago, the airport took many acres of the cemetery and expanded its runway system.  They were supposed to move all the graves in their paths in order to accomplish this but there are doubts that this occurred.  A part of the interstate runs on the edge of the cemetery which again raised some suspicions as to whether the graves they disturbed were properly moved as well.

 

For years folks had complained about not being able to find their loved ones but no one ever paid much, if any, attention to them since the cemetery itself was not always properly maintained.  This fact coupled with the common knowledge that vandals frequented this cemetery led authorities to take the families complaints with a big fat grain of salt and they simply replied that the graves in question simply could not be found - but certainly were still there. Perhaps the headstones had been vandalized?

 

Then in 1998, the sister of Addie Mae Collins went to visit her sister grave for the first time since Addie Mae was killed in the 16th St. Baptist Church bombings of 1963.  The owners of Greenwood had gone bankrupt in the 1970s and the cemetery was nearly in shambles and had been completely deserted.  A few times a year the city would go out and have it mowed and would have the police patrol it from time to time, but that was all the maintenance that it ever received.  The City of Birmingham estimates they have spent approximately $250,000 maintaining the abandoned cemetery.

 

Addie Mae's family wanted to move her to another cemetery.  One that was better maintained and perhaps had security to keep the vandals away.

 

 

They found the marble headstone marking her grave but when the workers dug, they didn't find a coffin.  To this day, no one knows what happened to the coffin containing the body of this young girl who was killed in the bombing of her church.

 

 

The original fire station for Woodlawn still stands.  It was built in 1929 and was one of the most interesting fire stations in the area as it was not built in the usual square box like fashion.

 

 

When Woodlawn hit its lowest point in the early 1980's the fire station was all but abandoned and sat empty and boarded up for 20 years.

 

 

Then in about 2008 a drive was founded to restore the formerly beautiful building.  Below is what the fire station looks like today.

 

 

There are a lot of buildings in the Woodlawn area that are still in decent shape.  The downtown area of Woodlawn is attractive and for the most part, well maintained.  It could be brought back to its former glory and when that happens, the rest of the area will follow suit.

 

Other neighborhoods in the Birmingham area such as Avondale, Crestwood, South Side to name a few have all had their ups and downs but once their commercial area began to be refurbished and revived, the residential areas followed suit.

 

Woodlawn is a stone throw from downtown Birmingham.  The trendier neighborhoods of Avondale and Crestwood sit on its borders.

 

The original City Hall is still standing.  It has been repurposed as a funeral home and is well maintained.

 

 

Below are a few more shots of downtown.

 

 

 

 

The downtown area of Woodlawn has a nice urban feel to it.  I can imagine coffee shops, art galleries and perhaps even a community theater there.  The trendier neighborhoods are so close to Woodlawn that I am positive these residents would bring their business to Woodlawn rather than drive further down the road to Forrest Park or Southside to get their Sunday cup of coffee while watching the traffic and reading their paper.

 

Another reason that I am hopeful that Woodlawn will see a major revival is the fact that property in the adjoining neighborhoods of Avondale, Crestwood and Crestline have become expensive.  It would make sense for those investors who are looking for the older historic feel in which to invest their money to head to the Woodlawn area.  Still conveniently located and historically significant but much more affordable.