Fall 1996, Number 42

Fall 1996, Number 42
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The Wetumpka Astrobleme. Clairmont Springs. The Confederados: Old South Immigrants in Brazil. Places in Peril: Alabama Endangered Historic Landmarks for 1996.  Read article excerpts below. The Wetumpka Astrobleme By John C. Hall The jumbled hills outside Wetumpka, Alabama, hide a secret; they are the eroded remains of a four-mile wide crater formed by a gigantic meteorite. Formed more than sixty million years ago when a massive meteorite smashed into the hard bedrock that underlies present-day Elmore County, the crater eluded explanation for eighty-five years. Its discovery was first recorded in the 1890s by a state geologist named Eugene Allen Smith, but it was not until 1976 that the area was labeled an astrobleme, or “star-wound,” by Tony Neathery and his team. It is a fitting title for an area where rocks of more than two hundred million years difference in age are jumbled together and where concentric rings of fractures and zones of shattered rock can be found beneath the surface. Although the idea that an impact crater formed this unusual area met with initial resistance, today the Wetumpka astrobleme is widely regarded as fact. Clairmont Springs By John B. Scott Jr. For sixty-five years, Clairmont Springs, a summer resort nestled at the base of the Talladega Mountain, was a byword for old-fashioned hospitality and world-class meals. Designed for “all those who need the healing that soft airs and sunny days, that magical water; and long quiet hours…can bring,” Clairmont was one of Alabama’s best-known summer resorts, made popular by its “healing” mineral springs. George Morgan of Tennessee was the first white settler to establish a farmstead at the site of the springs in 1833. After changing hands several times, the 520 acres around the springs was eventually bought by the Clairmont Springs Company, which built a two-story hotel on the property and sold lots for private cottages. Aided by the railway, the hotel flourished under the ownership of the James William Jackson family. Rates were $2.00 a day, $9.00 a week, or $30.00 a month and included a room, three bounteous meals a day, and access to eleven springs, each with a different mineral composition. When Clairmont Springs closed in 1975, time, weather, and vandalism took their toll. However, the natural beauty of the place remains, and the springs flow as strongly as ever. The Confederados: Old South Immigrants in Brazil By Cyrus B. Dawsey and James M. Dawsey Distraught by the outcome of the Civil War, many southerners were looking for a new home where they would not have to live subject to the hatedYankees. In the 1860s and 1870s, several thousand southerners packed up their belongings and left the ruin of the post-war South for Brazil. Land there was available for as little as twenty-two cents an acre, and the Brazilian government promised easy citizenship and help with accommodations and transportation. Col. William Norris and his son, Robert, from Spring Hill, Alabama, founded the largest and most successful American colony in Brazil. Attempting to re-create the extensive cotton plantation they had once operated in Alabama, they found success near Santa Bárbara. The Norrises and other American settlers had a dramatic effect on Brazilian society, bringing new farming tools and religious denominations with them. Today the effect of those southern settlers can be seen in their descendents, called confederados, who still speak English and pay homage to their Confederate heritage with annual reunions. Places in Peril: Alabama’s Endangered Historical Landmarks for 1996 By the Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Preservation Alliance Endangered Landmarks Committee For the third year, the Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Preservation Alliance seek to battle indifference to the value of historic structures by calling attention to some of the state’s most imperiled historic places. This year’s list includes eleven landmarks. Once “the model city of the New South,” the entire city of Anniston is now threatened by unplanned development that has demolished many of the city’s historic sites. Also in danger of disappearing due to poor municipal planning is the historic residential district in Union Springs. St. James C.M.E. Church in Lowndesboro, the original Dallas Academy in Selma, and the Rosenwald schools across the state are all endangered by neglect. Also on the list are two residential sites, WPA architectures in Cheaha State Park, and Pelham Road in Jacksonville.

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