A Few Tidbits about Alabama....How many did you know?

Maybe you were born and raised in Alabama.  Maybe you moved here as a child.  Maybe you moved here as an adult or only vacationed here.  Whatever your reason for being here or the length of time you spent here, we're glad you did.  

The Alabama State flag, also known as the Crimson St. Andrew's cross on a white field, patterned after the Confederate Battle Flag, and adopted in 1895. The bars forming the cross must not be less than six inches broad and must extend diagonally across the flag from side to side.

But did you know the following 12 tidbits about Alabama?  I'll confess, I didn't know one or two of them.

1.    Alabama entered the Union as the 22nd state on December 14, 1819

2.    The origin of the name "Alabama" comes from the Choctaws and means "thicket clearers" or "vegetation gatherers".

3.    The motto of Alabama is: Audemus jura nostra defendere (We dare defend our rights)

4.    Did you know Alabama has 21 State forests and 22 State parks?

5.    Alabama has the largest concentration of "glow worms" outside Australia and New Zealand.  "Although the creatures known locally as Dismalites are close cousins of the rare glowworms found in Australia and New Zealand, they are actually fly larvae", said Auburn University entomologist Gary Mullen, who has studied the insects. What makes the Dismals population so unusual is the large number of them.  

6.    The Confederacy was founded at Montgomery in Feb. 1861, and, for a time, the city was the Confederate capital.

7.    Alabama is often called the "Yellowhammer" state.  The story behind that curious nickname is as follows.  A company of young Confederate cavalry soldiers from Huntsville, under the command of Rev. D.C. Kelly, arrived at Hopkinsville, KY, where Gen. Forrest's troops were stationed. The officers and men of the Huntsville company wore new uniforms, whereas the soldiers who had long been on the battlefields were dressed in faded, worn uniforms. On the sleeves, collars and coattails of the new Calvary troop were bits of brilliant yellow cloth. As the company rode past Company A, Will Arnett cried out in greeting "Yellowhammer, Yellowhammer, flicker, flicker!" The greeting brought a roar of laughter from the men and from that moment the Huntsville soldiers were spoken of as the "Yellowhammer Company." The term quickly spread throughout the Confederate Army and all Alabama troops were referred to as the "Yellowhammers."  Yellowhammer is also the name of the State bird....but it's actually a Northern Flicker Woodpecker.

8.   1540: On October 18, 1540, the largest Indian battle in North America occurred when the Spaniards under Hernando de Soto attacked Chief Tuscaloosa's village of Mabila (or Mauvila). Most of the 2,000 inhabitants were killed during the battle.

9.   1886: The world's first electric trolley system was introduced in Montgomery, Alabama.

10.   The Boll Weevil Monument in Enterprise, Alabama is the world's only monument dedicated to an insect pest.

11.   Alabama is the only state with the major natural resources to make iron and steel, Alabama is the largest supplier of cast-iron and steel pipe products.

12.   Huntsville, Alabama is known as the Rocket Capital of the World and is home of the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center.