It’s always interesting to me to find how interconnected history can be. I never thought in a million years when I pulled into tiny Iuka, Mississippi that I would end up stumbling into the summer home of Colonel Robert C. Brinkley, the builder of the famed Peabody Hotel in Memphis. I found it even more interesting that it was this house which served as the headquarters of Ulysses S. Grant during the Civil War. This story sent me down a lot of rabbit holes, but I found the whole thing really fascinating.
Robert C. Brinkley, or “R.C.” as he was known, was born in Chatham County, North Carolina in 1816. He studied law at the Bingham School in North Carolina and moved to Tennessee when he was 20 and went to work as an attorney. Two years later, he married Ann Overton and they would have two children together. When Ann passed away in 1845, R.C. left his law practice and started focusing on real estate. He went on to become the president of the Memphis branch of Planters Bank, and began selling stock in the Memphis to Charleston Railroad.
It was during this time that R.C. traveled to London to try and raise money to purchase the rails necessary to complete this line. There, he met and befriended banker and financier George Peabody (whose finance business would be renamed J.P. Morgan after his death…
The tiny town of Iuka, Mississippi (population 3,000) was founded by David Hubbard in 1857 along the route of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. Built on the sight of an old Chickasaw Indian village, the town takes its name from one of the chiefs of that village, Chief Ish-ta-ki-yu-ka-tubbe . Iuka (pronounced “aye-you-ka”) was the site of the Battle of Iuka during the Civil War, an engagement between Union General Rosecrans’ Army of the Mississippi and Confederate General Sterling Price’s Confederate Army of the West. The battle resulted in over 2300 casualties before Price withdrew his troops and marched on to join General Van Dorn in the 2nd Battle of Corinth. The Brinkley House, also called Dunrobin, was used as General Grant’s Headquarters during the battle, and is a really cool antebellum home.
Today, Iuka is a charming little town with a cute downtown area and a wonderful park. The park’s centerpiece is the Iuka Mineral Springs, where natural spring water flows for all to enjoy. I really liked this park for some reason and enjoyed taking photos of the old playground equipment which reminded me of the things I played on when I was a kid. Iuka has a beautiful War Memorial and a history museum in their old courthouse which was sadly closed during my visit. There were also several beautiful churches and some neat looking shops. Much like my visit to Corinth, short days and cold weather kept me from exploring too far afield, but I thought Iuka was an adorable little town and that these photos would give you a feel for my visit.
Corinth was my first stop in Mississippi. I came to learn more about the Mississippi side of Shiloh National Military Park history, and to see the infamous rail crossing which was of such strategic importance during the Civil War that both sides suffered enormous casualties trying to secure it. I also wanted to learn more about the “Contraband Camp” which grew from enslaved people fleeing behind Union lines. You can see my photos from the Tennessee side of the battle HERE and from the Contraband Camp HERE. I thought both were really interesting, but while I was in town I thought I would have a wander and take a few photos. The weather was overcast until right before I left, and it was really cold out and dark by 5, so I didn’t get to see as much of it as I would have liked. I know there is a lot more to Corinth than these photos, but I still thought I would share them with you here. It was a beautiful town with a fascinating history and definitely worth a visit. Corinth was originally called Cross City when it was founded in 1853 at the crossing of the Mobile & Ohio and Memphis & Charleston railroads and is today home to about 15,000 people.
I’ve been fortunate enough over the years to spend the Fourth of July in some pretty cool places, from New York City to Homer, Alaska and from Lincoln, Nebraska to Washington D.C. This year I has the pleasure of celebrating the 4th in lovely Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. I really enjoyed the small-town parade complete with Boy Scouts, veterans, beauty queens, marching bands and cool cars. It wasn’t a massive parade, but a good one, and it’s always good to be home in the United States to celebrate our Independence Day. I hope you enjoy these photos from the 4th of July in Hawaii.
As I wind up my photos from Alabama, I wanted to include a selection of rural and small town photos from The Heart of Dixie, many of which haven’t made it into my previous posts around the state. Alabama has some beautiful rural areas and some very clean and well kept small towns. I loved just driving down the byways and back country roads of the state and seeing what I could see out there. Sometimes it was nothing at all, but sometimes I came across the most beautiful little gems and hidden treasures. Many I couldn’t find a place to pull over and photograph, so they will have to live in my memory. Others I could stop and shoot and have included here. A few of these photos are from larger towns like Selma, but they were too rural looking to not include in this post. I had a great month in Alabama and loved my visits to the towns and cities I’ve featured in earlier posts, but didn’t want to leave the state in my rear-view before I posted some of these from more rural areas as well. Enjoy!
Gadsden rests quietly on the banks of the Coosa River in Northwest Alabama. Founded in 1825 and originally called Double Springs, the town was renamed in honor of American diplomat James Gadsden. James Gadsden was most famous for negotiating the Gadsden Purchase, which included parts of southern Arizona and New Mexico, the acquisition of which allowed for the building of a transcontinental railroad. The town of Gadsden was once a major riverboat port and would become a center of industry during the industrial revolution. That industry would allow Gadsden to thrive for much of the next century, but as companies left town in the seventies and eighties, the city fell on hard times. Gadsden has worked hard to redevelop its downtown area and while it’s definitely a sleepy town, it has a lot of charm. I really enjoyed my visit to Gadsden. I hadn’t been there in many years and was happy to see so many storefronts occupied and to find downtown bustling. If you ever find yourself in the area, set aside some time for a stroll downtown, a visit to the art gallery and some seafood at one of the many excellent restaurants in town. You’ll be glad you did. Enjoy these photos from downtown Gadsden, Alabama’s City of Champions.
I came to Anniston, Alabama to visit the relatively new Freedom Riders National Monument designated in 2017 by President Obama. Anniston became the last stop on the route of the original Freedom Riders’ ride to protest segregation on interstate transport in the South in 1961. When the bus crossed the line from Georgia into Alabama, Anniston was the first station over the border. The Greyhound bus pulled into the station where it was met by White Segregationists and Klansmen who let it be known that integration would not stand in Alabama. When the bus pulled out of town, it was attacked and set on fire just six miles down the road. A few blocks away, the Trailways bus used in the ride was boarded at the station and the Freedom Riders were badly beaten. While the Monument is still in development, there are some fascinating signs and diagrams at the sites of both of the former bus stations. Both are informative and unbiased, as I would expect from the National Park Service. I thought it was worth the trip just for that, but as I looked around town, I really liked what I saw. Anniston has a well-maintained Main Street area (actually called Noble Street), and some cool old buildings and businesses. There are some great murals and a nice art project around town made from old bicycles. There were some beautiful abandoned buildings in Anniston as well, which I find fascinating and interesting to photograph. Anniston was given the nickname “The Model City” in the late 19th Century, since it was a carefully planned city which grew up around an iron furnace after the Civil War. Originally called Woodstock, it was renamed Annie’s Town after the daughter of the Union general who had expanded the town and enlarged the furnace after the war. The name was later shortened to Anniston. While I was only there for a few hours, I really enjoyed my visit to Anniston, and I hope you will enjoy the photos that resulted.
Florence, Alabama is a really neat little city in the far northwest corner of the state. It is part of a region referred to collectively as The Shoals, which includes the towns of Muscle Shoals, Tuscumbia and Sheffield. Florence sits right on the Tennessee River, and was named for the city in Italy by the Italian surveyor who helped lay out the original plan. Florence is the hometown of both W.C. Handy and Sam Phillips, so musical traditions run deep in the area. In fact, it seemed like the arts were well represented in general there as is displayed by the beautiful street art you’ll see in this post. During my visit I also caught a wonderful performance of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas at the beautiful Shoals Theater, right in the heart of town. I really enjoyed wandering the streets of Florence and spending some time in the riverfront McFarland Park. While I spent my days touring nearby FAME Recording Studio, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio and the birthplace of Helen Keller, I kept finding myself drawn back across the river in the evening to experience all this town had to offer, from nice restaurants to some cool live music venues. While there is so much to see and do in this part of Alabama, be sure to save some time for a stroll around downtown Florence, “Alabama’s Renaissance City”. You’ll be glad you did.
Demopolis is a beautiful town in the heart of the Canebreak region of Western Alabama. This part of the state was once covered with thick stands of a native bamboo-like species called Arundinaria. While much of this cane was destroyed to make room for cotton plantations, the area is still called the Canebreak, and Demopolis is the region’s biggest town. Demopolis was founded by a group of French expats in 1817 and given its name from the Greek for The People’s City. It would become a major transportation hub, sitting at the confluence of the Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers, a status which would only grow when the railroad arrived. Today, Demopolis is a quaint and quiet town of around 7,000. I really loved it there and kept thinking it’s what a Norman Rockwell painting would look like if it aged a few decades. The old brick buildings have stood up well to the tests of time and the town has a lot of charm to it. While I wish I had had a little better weather to take these photos in, I still think they show the beauty of Demopolis, a small town which is the heart of the Canebreak.
As I was driving through Double Springs, Alabama I saw in front of the courthouse what looked like the ubiquitous small-town war memorial which I have found pretty much everywhere I’ve visited on this journey in both the North and the South. But this one was different because unfurled behind it were both Union and Confederate flags, so I hit the brakes and went in for a closer look. What I discovered was a Civil War memorial to The Free State of Winston. The plaque on the memorial read as follows:
DUAL DESTINY
The Civil War was not fought between the North and South but rather between the Union and Confederate armies. Perhaps as many as 300,000 Southerners served in the Union Army. The majority of the Appalachian South, from West Virginia to Winston County, was pro-Union. Winston provided 239 Union and 112 Confederate soldiers, 21 of whom shared last names.
Burnt Corn, Alabama is a quiet community of about 300 people in the southeast of the state. It is actually a town that pre-dates the formation of the state of Alabama and traces its roots back to the early 1800’s when it was a stop on the old Federal Road connecting Washington D.C. to New Orleans. A post office opened in town in 1817 and operated there all the way until 2002. It’s a beautiful little town which I enjoyed stopping in to take these photos. To read the full history of the town and find out more about the different interpretations of how Burnt Corn got its name, check out THIS fact-filled website about the town. If you’re ever passing through the area, take a few minutes to detour to beautiful Burnt Corn, Alabama.
Out on the prairie in the heart of Acadiana sits the tiny old railroad town of Rayne, Louisiana. Originally called Pouppeville, the citizens decided to rename their town Rayne in honor of the engineer who laid the tracks. In the early 1900’s, three brothers started a frog leg business, shipping frog legs all over the country, and Rayne got a reputation as the Frog Capital of the World. They truly have run with their nickname and frogs are everywhere you look in this quiet little town. They even host a Frog Festival every May! I loved walking the streets and taking these photos, and this post is just a sampling of all the frogs to be found in Rayne. They made me smile and reminded me that life is too short to take too seriously. How can you take things too seriously when you are constantly surrounded by frogs? Kudos to the citizens of Rayne for keeping their sense of humor and bringing a lot of joy to their town streets. Your town made me want to jump for joy!
