Alabama - Tidbits of History

Header image from National Park Service, Horshoe Bend National Military Park, Daviston, Alabama.

Alabama was admitted Dec. 14, 1819 as the 22nd state.

Bird: Northern Flicker or Yellowhammer – The northern flicker is a medium-sized bird of the woodpecker family. The flicker is the only woodpecker in North American that commonly finds food on the ground. It often forages for ants and beetle larvae on the ground.

Flower: Camellia – Camellias are flowering plants, evergreen shrubs, or small trees. Tea oil from Camellia’s is widely used as a cooking oil in Asia and is used to protect the blades of sharp instruments.

As a girl’s name, Camellia has come to represent a strong girl who always has a way to figure things out. She’ll give advice and try to help you as much as possible.

Tree: Long-leaf Pine – Vast forests of longleaf pine once were present along the southeastern Atlantic coast and Gulf Coast of North America, as part of the eastern savannas. These forests were the source of naval stores – resin, turpentine, and timber – needed by merchants and the navy for their ships.

State Quarter
From: theus50.com

The Alabama quarter design features an image of Helen Keller with her name in English, and in a reduced-size version of braille. The Alabama quarter is the first U.S. circulating coin to feature braille. An Alabama long leaf pine branch and magnolias grace the sides of the design, and a “Spirit of Courage” banner underlines the central image.

Helen Keller was born at “Ivy Green” in Tuscumbia, Alabama, in 1880. When she was a small child, an illness destroyed her sight and hearing, depriving her of the senses by which we normally learn to speak. Despite her disabilities, Helen Keller learned to speak and read using the raised and manual alphabets, as well as Braille. Miss Keller also graduated with honors, receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree from Radcliffe. She went on to publish numerous books, articles and essays. Helen Keller lived out her life addressing social issues for disabled persons and women. Every year at “Ivy Green,” a week-long celebration is held to commemorate her lifetime of accomplishments and her “Spirit of Courage.”

Capital: Montgomery

Nickname: Yellowhammer State/Heart of Dixie/Cotton State

Gemstone: Star Blue Quartz

Insect: Monarch butterfly

Mineral: Hermatite (oxide of iron (FE203)

Nut: Pecan

Song: “Alabama”

Motto: We Dare Defend Our Rights

Alabama Facts and Trivia

The word Alabama means “tribal town” in the Creek Indian language.

Another source says that Alabama comes from the Choctaw meaning “thicket-clearers” or “vegetation-gatherers”

Spanish explorers arrived at Mobile Bay in 1519.

In 1540, the territory was visited by explorer Hernando de Soto.

French-Canadian explorer Jean Baptiste Le Moyne Sieur de Bienville established “Fort Louis de la Louisiane” which is now Mobile, Alabama. It was the first permanent European settlement in Alabama.

In 1703 the tiny settlement celebrated America’s first Mardi Gras.

The British gained control of the area in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris but had to cede almost all the Alabama region to the U.S. and Spain after the American Revolution.

General Andrew Jackson defeated the Creek Indians in 1814. Following the event the Native Americans ceded nearly half the present state land to the United States.

Alabama resident Sequoyah devised the phonetic, written alphabet of the Cherokee language in 1821.

Montgomery is the capital and the birthplace of the Confederate States of America.

On January 11, 1861 Alabama became the fourth state to secede from the Union.

The Confederate flag was designed and first flown in Alabama in 1861.

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.”

At the Battle of Mobile Bay, Admiral David Farragut issued his famous command, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.” The event occurred on August 5, 1864.

In 1902 Dr. Luther Leonidas Hill performed the first open heart surgery in the Western Hemisphere by suturing a stab wound in a young boy’s heart. The surgery occurred in Montgomery.

The town of Enterprise houses the Boll Weevil Monument to acknowledge the role this destructive insect played in encouraging farmers to grow crops other than cotton. Erected by the citizens of Enterprise in 1919 it is the world’s only monument dedicated to an insect.

Dothan, Alabama is the Peanut Capital of the World. Fifty percent of all the peanuts produced in the U.S. are grown within 100 miles of Dothan.

Alabama Laws:

Alabama has some strange laws. Granted, most are not enforced but they still exist on the books.:

It is illegal for any person in this state to place common table salt on a railroad track. This is a law that if violated is punishable by death as of 2013.
The state of Alabama has a law that prohibits wrestling matches between humans and bears.
It is illegal to play dominoes in Alabama on Sundays
It is illegal to put an ice cream cone in your back pocket.
It is illegal to impersonate a priest or to wear a fake moustache in church.
In Lee County, it is illegal to sell peanuts after sundown on Wednesdays.

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