Syndication News Column:
Alabama

Azaleas frame one of the fountains at Bellingrath Gardens and Home.
These gardens are located in Mobile County, Alabama.
(Photo was provided by Bellingrath Gardens and Home.)

The State of Alabama was initially inhabited by several Native American nations.  Today, American citizens of Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Shawnee, and other nations live in the state, according to the Alabama Department of Public Health.

The earliest European settlement of Alabama focused on the section of the state along the Gulf of Mexico.  On January 20, 1702, “Le Moyne brothers, Iberville and Bienville, [established]…French fort and settlement, Fort Louis de la Mobile, on a bluff twenty-seven miles up the Mobile River from Mobile Bay,” according to the Alabama Department of Archives and History.  The Daily American of Nashville, Tennessee, reported in a news article dated April 26, 1885, that Mobile served as the first capital of the French Colony of Louisiana.

Prior to its inclusion in the United States, parts of Alabama were governed by the British, French, and Spanish.  In the early years of the United States, the State of Georgia claimed much of Alabama as its territory.  Alabama was part of Mississippi Territory from 1798 until 1817;  it then separated from Mississippi and became Alabama Territory.  Two years later, this area was admitted to the Union as the State of Alabama.

Enslavement of Africans was a key part of the Alabaman economy, according to documents at the Library of Congress.  Alabama seceded from the Union in 1861.  For a short period of time in that year, Montgomery, Alabama, served as the capital of the Confederate States of America.  In 1868, the state was re-admitted as a state within the United States of America.  While slavery was outlawed in 1865, documents at the Library of Congress show that it took about another one hundred years for civil rights for all American citizens to be fully implemented in Alabama.

One of the attractions that highlight Alabama’s horticultural heritage is Bellingrath Gardens and Home.  This locale includes about 900 acres along the Fowl River in Mobile County in Alabama.  “Sixty-five acres are cultivated with annual blooms and continuous color,” according to information provided by this non-profit public garden.

An American alligator in Alabama in October of 2015.
(This photo was provided courtesy of USA-Reiseblogger through Pixabay.)

Beyond people, among the residents of Alabama are a species of animals that is not usually associated with the state – alligators.  In particular, American alligators.  While typically associated with Florida and Louisiana, the American alligators reside throughout much of the southeastern part – and beyond – of the United States.  Habitat includes lands from Texas and Oklahoma (yes, even Oklahoma has American alligators) to almost the border between North Carolina and Virginia, according to the United States Geological Survey.

If you’re a hunter and interested in catching a ‘gator, please note that residents of other states “may only participate as alligator hunting assistants” in Alabama, according to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.  The Department reported that seasons vary depending on the locale within Alabama during portions of August and September each year.  While a sixteen year-old is not able to buy cigarettes or alcohol – in Alabama or elsewhere in the United States – if the individual is a resident of Alabama, they are eligible to secure an “Alligator Possession Tag” and potentially harvest one alligator annually, according to the Department.  Please note that the Department reported that no bait is allowed by hunters seeking to capture an alligator in Alabama.

© 2020 Richard McDonough