One of the things we love most about Alabama is that it is full of surprises. No matter how well you think you know this state, there is always a new place or interesting fact waiting to be discovered. Here are just a few of our wonderful state’s secrets:
- The first Mardi Gras celebration was held in Mobile in 1703.
Flickr/Pieter Morlion
- The rocket that took the first Americans to the moon (Saturn V), was designed at the Marshall Space Center in Huntsville.
Flickr/Falon Yates U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
- Colbert County is home to the Coon Dog Cemetery – the only cemetery of its kind in the world.
Flickr/Jimmy Emerson, DVM
- The first electric streetcar system in the world was Montgomery’s Lightning Route, established in 1886.
Flickr/J. Stephen Conn
- The Tuskegee Airmen, the country’s first African-American military airmen, were trained in Alabama.
Wikimedia Commons
- Alabama has had a total of five capitals at different times in its history. These capital cities are the following: St. Stephens (1817), Huntsville (1819), Cahawba (1820), Tuscaloosa (1826) and Montgomery (1846). Pictured are the ruins of Tuscaloosa’s old capitol building, which burned down in 1923.
Flickr/Jimmy Emerson, DVM
- On November 30, 1954, Ann Hodges of Oak Grove became the only confirmed case of a person being struck by a meteorite.
Flickr/Jimmy Emerson, DVM
- Alabama’s state drink is Conecuh Ridge Whiskey, making it the only state with an alcoholic beverage as its official drink.
Flickr/Stephan Geyer
- Clark County’s Mt. Nebo Baptist Church Cemetery includes several unique tombstones. They feature death masks cast from the person buried below them.
Wikimedia Commons
- The town of Magnolia Springs is the only one in the country with an all-water mail route.
http://www.townofmagnoliasprings.org/
Do you know any other little-known facts or unique places in Alabama? We would love to hear about them!
Flickr/Pieter Morlion
Flickr/Falon Yates
U.S. Space and Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama.
Flickr/Jimmy Emerson, DVM
Flickr/J. Stephen Conn
Wikimedia Commons
Flickr/Stephan Geyer
http://www.townofmagnoliasprings.org/
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