Alabama Trivia & Tidbits
Looking for Alabama trivia? Try our list Alabama little know facts, tidbits and trivia.
—In 2001, Huntsville native Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia, a free online encyclopedia that is volunteer-written and edited. Wiki is a Hawaiian term that means “quick” or “fast.”
first appeared: 5/4/2008
—Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, received a Presidential Medal of Freedom last year for her outstanding contribution to literature. More than 30 million copies of the 1960 race-relations novel have been sold. Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville (pop. 6,862).
first appeared: 3/9/2008
—The state has four national forests: Bankhead in the northwest, Conecuh in the south, Talladega in the northeast and central, and Tuskegee in the east-central part of the state.
first appeared: 2/24/2008
—The world’s smallest city block is in Dothan (pop. 57,737) and consists of a triangle of land where North Appletree, Museum and Troy streets intersect. The plot is barely big enough to hold a stop sign, yield sign, street sign and a monument noting the block’s significance.
first appeared: 2/10/2008
—The Port of Decatur (pop. 53,929) is the busiest port on the Tennessee River and offers access to deep water via the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.
first appeared: 1/27/2008
—The Benjamin Fitzpatrick Bridge across the Tallapoosa River at Tallassee (pop. 4,934) is one of the world’s longest curved bridges. The horizontally arched bridge is 1,738 feet long and 143 feet above water.
first appeared: 1/13/2008
—Folk artist Jimmy Lee Sudduth, who was born in 1910 in Caines Ridge and died in September in Fayette (pop. 4,922), used mud and common ingredients such as syrup and berries in his textured paintings of everyday life. His work is in the collections of the American Folk Art Museum in New York and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
first appeared: 12/30/2007
—The state has designated two official fish. The fighting tarpon, a silvery game fish that can reach 100 pounds, is the official saltwater fish and the largemouth bass is the official freshwater fish.
first appeared: 12/2/2007
—The state’s $2-billion-a-year beef cattle industry is spotlighted at the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association MOOseum in Montgomery.
first appeared: 11/18/2007
—The Hank Williams Trail includes sites throughout the state with ties to the famous country singer, including the service station garage in Andalusia (pop. 8,794) where he married Audrey Sheppard in 1944.
first appeared: 11/4/2007
—Mardi Gras was observed for the first time in the New World by French pioneers at Twenty-Seven Mile Bluff, the first settlement of Mobile, in 1703. The Mobile Carnival Museum tells the history of America’s oldest Mardi Gras celebration.
first appeared: 10/21/2007
—The movie Constellation, released this year, was filmed in Huntsville, including sites at the EarlyWorks Children’s History Museum, the Huntsville Museum of Art, and the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.
first appeared: 10/7/2007
—About 1920, fire ants entered the United States at Mobile on a cargo ship from South America. Once established, the invaders adapted quickly and spread to several Southern states.
first appeared: 9/30/2007
—In 1989, Selma (pop. 20,512) was designated the state’s official butterfly capital and the Eastern tiger swallowtail its mascot. The monarch butterfly was designated the official state insect.
first appeared: 9/9/2007
—Confederate Memorial Park museum opened in April at the site of the state’s only Confederate veterans home near Marbury in Chilton County (pop. 39,593). The home operated from 1902 to 1939.
first appeared: 8/26/2007
—Weiss Lake, a 30,200-acre impoundment of the Coosa, Chattooga and Little rivers in Cherokee County (pop. 23,988), is called the “Crappie Capital of the World” because of the quantity and size of the catches.
first appeared: 8/12/2007
—Horse Pens 40 Park, an area of natural rock outcroppings atop Chandler Mountain near Steele (pop. 1,093), most likely served humans through the ages as a stone fortress, ceremonial site and pen for confining animals. The privately owned nature park is popular with rock climbers.
first appeared: 7/29/2007
—The Battle of Mobile Bay Civil War Trail, which opened in March, documents military movements along a 90-mile route from the Gulf of Mexico to northern Mobile County during the 1864 Battle of the Bay and the 1865 Overland Campaign.
first appeared: 7/15/2007
—Jim Denney of Alexander City (pop. 15,008) won the 2007 Alabama Waterfowl Stamp Art Contest with a painting of a pair of hooded mergansers. The artwork will adorn the 2008-09 Alabama Waterfowl Stamp.
first appeared: 7/1/2007
—Along with camellias and azaleas, Mobile is famous for its lacy ironwork, which has adorned buildings in the city since the 1800s. Notable examples are the Elgin Building with its fireproof cast-iron facade and the Richards Daughters of the American Revolution House with a cast-iron veranda depicting the four seasons.
first appeared: 6/17/2007
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