Alabama Front Porches: The official website for Alabama's Black Belt

The Old Lock 1 Park is located at the remains of Old Lock 1 on the Tombigbee River between Jackson and Coffeeville. This park lies in a grove of large pecan trees. Major improvements at the park site from 1999–2004 include a picnic pavilion, restrooms, renovated boat ramp, paved roads, parking lots and a park host campsite.

Folklife Specialist Anne Kimzey interviews Deborah Rankins, Assistant Director of Library Services at Alabama Southern Community College and the Kathryn Tucker Windham Museum in Thomasville.  Rankins furnishes information about the Windham Museum and discusses a calendar of events that feature various regional storytelling groups associated with the Kathryn Tucker Windam Storytelling Club in Southwest Alabama. [...]

With spring migration winding down and the breeding season in full swing, May is a great time to bird southwest Alabama’s floodplain forests. Two of our favorites are Old Lock 1 Park and Bashi Creek Public Use Area. Both are maintained by the US Corps of Engineers. Management Rd, Demopolis, AL 36732; phone: 334-289-3540 and both provide excellent access to the backwaters of the Tombigbee River.

Baldwin One of the most brutal massacres in American history took place at Fort Mims during the Creek Indian War. The Creeks, led by Red Eagle, took the fort killing all but about 36 of some 550 in the fort. The Creeks had been armed by the British at Pensacola in this phase of the [...]

Off the Porch with Judy and Don Self Alabama birders have long enjoyed birding the Jackson Water Treatment Ponds (see page 65 of A Birder’s Guide to Alabama, Porter editor, 2001). But we only recently stumbled upon two additional gems located just 3.5 miles to the west of the treatment ponds. Parker Lake and Kimbell [...]