Alabama

Horseshoe Bend National Military Park


Horseshoe Bend National Military Park
11288 Horseshoe Bend Rd
Daviston, AL 36256

Phone: 256-234-7111

On March 27, 1814, at the "horseshoe bend" on the Tallapoosa River, Gen. Andrew Jackson's forces broke the power of the Upper Creek Indian Confederacy and opened large parts of Alabama and Georgia to settlement.

Little River Canyon National Preserve


Little River Canyon National Preserve
2141 Gault Ave N
Fort Payne, AL 35967-3673

Phone: 256-845-9605

The preserve protects the natural, recreational, and cultural resources of the Little River Canyon of northeast Alabama. A variety of rock expanses, benches, and bluffs creates a unique environment for several threatened and endangered species and for recreational pursuits, including kayaking and rock climbing. Hunting, fishing, and trapping are permitted.

Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail


Natchez Trace National Scenic Trail
c/o Natchez Trace Parkway
2680 Natchez Trace Parkway
Tupelo, MS 38804-9718

Phone: 662-680-4025

Completed sections of this trail are found alongside the Natchez Trace Parkway near Rocky Springs, Jackson, and Tupelo, Mississippi, and Leipers Fork, Tennessee. Established March 28, 1983. Length: 64 miles.

Natchez Trace Parkway


Natchez Trace Parkway
2680 Natchez Trace Parkway
Tupelo, MS 38804-9718

Phone: 662-680-4025

The parkway generally follows the Old Trace, or trail, used by American Indians and early settlers between Nashville, Tennessee, and Natchez, Mississippi, about 1790-1830. Of the estimated 445 miles of parkway, 424 are completed.

Pickwick Reservoir


Summary
Pickwick Landing Dam is a significant producer of hydroelectric power. It provides a flat pool of water that extends eastward to Wilson Dam in Alabama and covers a portion of the treacherous Muscle Shoals, which once hampered navigation on the Tennessee River.

Pickwick Reservoir has excellent sportfishing areas, including the Wilson Dam tailwater at the upper end of the reservoir, noted for record-size smallmouth bass and catfish. Another favorite spot is the discharge basin at Colbert Fossil Plant west of Sheffield, Alabama, where the warm water discharged from the power plant attracts fish during cold weather.

Pickwick is popular with water skiers, and its large campground located on the water below the dam includes 35 sites with full hookups.

Pickwick Dam Tailwater Campground
This is a self-service campground (731-925-4346). 95 campsites, 66 with water and electric hookups. Rest rooms with heated showers and flush toilets, dump station, picnic tables and grills, boat ramp below dam, tailwater bank fishing, bird-watching.

Powerhouse Drive
Counce, TN 38326

Near Counce, Tennessee. From junction of Hwy. 57 and Hwy. 128, go 1.5 miles north on Hwy. 128 across dam, then west below dam.

Russell Cave National Monument


Russell Cave National Monument
3729 County Road 98
Bridgeport, AL 35740-9770

Phone: 205-495-2672

An almost continuous archaeological record of human habitation from at least 7000 B.C. to about A.D. 1650--Transitional Paleo to Mississippian cultural periods--is revealed in this cave.

Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site


Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
c/o Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site
P.O. Drawer 10
Tuskegee Institute, AL 36087-0010

Phone: 334-724-0922

This site preserves the airfield, historic hangar, and other buildings at Moton Field, where African American pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen received their initial flight training during World War II. UNDER DEVELOPMENT.

Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site


Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site
P.O. Drawer 10
Tuskegee Institute, AL 36087-0010

Phone: 334-727-3200

Booker T. Washington founded this college for African Americans in 1881. Preserved here are the brick buildings the students constructed themselves, Washington's home, and the George Washington Carver Museum, which serves as the visitor center. The college is still an active institution that owns most of the property within the national historic site.

Upper Bear Creek Reservoir


Summary
Upper Bear Creek is one of four dams—the others are Bear Creek, Little Bear Creek, and Cedar Creek—that provide flood control, recreation, and water supply in northwest Alabama. Upper Bear Dam is located in Marion County, and the reservoir is in three counties: Marion, Franklin, and Winston.

The Bear Creek area is popular with all types of boaters, including canoeists and kayakers. The Bear Creek Floatway, which flows from Upper Bear Creek Dam into Bear Creek Reservoir, is a popular spot for teaching first-timers to negotiate rapids and work with the current.

Below Bear Creek Dam the Lower Bear Creek Canoe Trail provides a more leisurely float, running a total of 34 miles down the creek and all the way to Pickwick Landing Dam on the Tennessee.

The scenic area is also used by fishermen, picnickers, birdwatchers, and sightseers.

Wheeler Reservoir


Summary
Wheeler Reservoir is one of nine reservoirs that create a stairway of navigable water on the Tennessee River from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Paducah, Kentucky. Along with the downstream Wilson and Pickwick Reservoirs, Wheeler helped cover the Muscle Shoals, the rock formations that had blocked navigation on the Tennessee River.

Today, Wheeler Reservoir is a major recreation and tourist center, attracting about four million visits a year. Along with camping, boating, and fishing, visitors enjoy the Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge several miles upstream from the dam. The refuge features Alabama’s only significant concentration of wintering Canada geese.

Barge traffic on Wheeler has made it one of the major centers along the Tennessee waterway for shoreline industrial development. Private industry has invested about $1.3 billion in the waterfront plants and terminals at Decatur, Alabama, the largest city on the reservoir.

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