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... Heart of Dixie...the Yellowhammer State. On
the Gulf
shores Alabama we have some delightful
Alabama vacation rentals
advertised to enable you to enjoy the wonderful white
sandy beaches on the Gulf of Mexico.
In the Gulf shores Alabama
area, and indeed
in the southern half of the state, temperatures rarely
fall below freezing – many children in the State
never having seen a snowfall! Notwithstanding this fact,
and contrary to popular belief, Alabama is not an uncomfortable,
hot, tropical state. The climate also various widely
from the highlands in the north to the beaches in the
south in the Gulf of Mexico.
Alabama has a long history as a farming community. The American Indians were its first farmers. At
the time of Christopher Columbus, Alabama was inhabited
by four main groups of American Indians. These
were the:
- Cherokees
- Creeks
- Choctaws
- Chickasaws.
The Indians, although there were obviously some
skirmishes, in the main they lived in peace, hunting,
fishing, and growing vegetables on small plots of land. However,
following the invasion of the 'white settlers', fields of
fluffy cotton appeared across the state! Following
devastation to the cotton crop caused by the boll
weevil, farmers realised that it was unwise to depend
solely upon one crop for their livelihoods. In 1919 in
Enterprise Alabama, a monument to the boll weevil was
erected to remind farmers of the part it played in
teaching them not to rely solely on a single crop. It is
probably the only monument to an insect pest ever
erected! Having been taught a devastating lesson,
farmers switched to other crops and today Alabama now has a rich agricultural
diversity.
Alabama is also rich in natural resources and some
would say that it has more than any other area of its
size in the world. These resources include minerals,
soils, forests and water.
There are many places of interest (outside of the mountains, streams,
forests and sandy beaches – in themselves places
of natural beauty) such as:
- Fort Gains on Dauphin Island,
Fort Morgan, west of Gulf shore both played a major
role in protecting Confederate shipping in Mobile
Bay during the Civil War.
- Horseshoe Bend National Military Park – the site of
the last battle of the Creek Indian War of 1813-14)
- Mound State Monument – a state park and museum in
Moundville preserves prehistoric temple mounds.
- Russell Cave National Monument in Bridgeport
preserves records of almost continuous human habitation
from around 6000 BC to 1650 AD.
- Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile
- Jefferson Davis' Home in Montgomery – famous for
being the 'First White House of the Confederacy'.
- Alabama Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville
– the world's largest space museum.
- Ave Maria Grotto in St Bernard that displays more
than 125 miniature replicas of the world's religious
buildings.
- Ivy Green in Tuscumbia is the birthplace and
childhood home of the famous Helen Keller who, following
an illness, was left blind and deaf before the age of 2.
Despite this handicap she gained an education, learned
to speak and spent her life lecturing and writing to
raise money for the training of other handicapped
people.
To see a little piece of American history,
Alabama
vacation rentals will provide you with a cost-effective
way to do this. If beach life meets with your vacation
lifestyle more, then try our properties located on the
Gulf shores Alabama.
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