🚗 2009 ~Sunday August 9, Fort Payne Historic Markers, Alabama Museum, Ruby Falls

We started the day by eating breakfast at Steak & Shake in Huntsville. We were on our way to Fort Payne when we stopped along the road to take pictures of Historic sites and markers.

Alabama's Music Fan Club & Museum, which houses memorable items once owned by Randy Owens, Teddy Gentry, Jeff Cook, and Mark Herndon

Crow Town in Stevenson
One of the Five Lower Towns was established by the Chickamauga Cherokees in 1782 under Dragging Canoe's leadership. Territorial Governor William Blount reported to the Secretary of War in 1792 that: "Crow Town lies on the north side of the Tennessee (River), half a mile from the river, up Crow Creek, 30 miles below the Suck. (It) is the lowest town in the Cherokee Nation and contained 30 huts in 1790. The Creeks and Northward tribes cross (the river) here." 
All of the Five Lower Towns were on the extreme Cherokee frontier. Running Water and Nickajack were near Chattanooga, Tennessee. Long Island Town was twenty miles below the Suck, east of Bridgeport, Alabama. Lookout Mountain Town was near Trenton, Georgia.
(Continued on another side)

Crow Town in Stevenson
Crow Town encompassed several miles by the early 1800s as increasing numbers of Cherokee families settled there. With the creation of Jackson County in 1819, many Cherokees moved to the south side of the river – some 19th-century maps placed Crow Town near the southeast end of Snodgrass Bridge, which carries Highway 117 across the Tennessee River east of Stevenson. The 1782 site of Crow Town, one-half mile from the confluence of Crow Creek and the original channel of the Tennessee River, was flooded with the closing of the spillway gates at Guntersville Dam in 1939.

Trail of Tears Bridgeport
In May 1838, soldiers, under the command of U.S. Army General Winfield Scott, began rounding up Cherokee Indians in this area who had refused to move to Indian Territory in Oklahoma. About 16,000 Cherokees were placed in stockades in Tennessee and Alabama until their removal. Roughly 3,000 were sent by boat down the Tennessee River, and the rest were marched overland in the fall and winter of 1838-1839. This forced removal under harsh conditions resulted in the deaths of about 4,000 Cherokees.
In late June of 1838, a party of 1,070 poorly equipped Indians was marched overland from Ross' Landing at Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Waterloo, Alabama, because of low water in the upper Tennessee River. Following the general route of present-day U.S. Highway 72, they camped at Bellefonte, where about 300 escaped between Bellefonte and Woodville. On June 26, the remainder refused to proceed. Consequently, the militia, under the command of Army Captain G.S. Drane, was tasked with mobilizing the group and escorting them to Waterloo. Arriving in miserable condition on July 10, 1838, the Cherokee were placed on a boat to continue their journey West.
The "Trail of Tears," which resulted from the Indian Removal Act passed by the U.S. Congress in 1830, is one of the darkest chapters in American history.

Alabama Welcomes You, the 22nd State

Alabama's Fan Club and Museum, Randy Owens and Teddy Wayne Gentry

Alabama's Fan Club and Museum Mark Joel Herndon & Jeffrey Alan Cook

Alabama's Fan Club and Museum 

Alabama's Fan Club and Museum 

Fort Payne City Park

At Fort Payne City Park, we saw several historical markers and the individual statues of Teddy Wayne Gentry, Jeffery Alan Cook, Randy Yeuell Owen, and Mark Joel Herndon, all members of the group Alabama.

Fort Payne's Fort
The fort, consisting of a log house and an enormous stockade, was built in 1838 by order of General Winfield Scott, commander of military forces responsible for the removal of Cherokee Indians.
Soldiers occupying the fort were commanded by Captain John C. Payne, for whom the fort was named.
Indians in the DeKalb County area who refused to move westward voluntarily were gathered and held in the stockade pending their forceful removal to the Indian territory.

Willis Town Mission
The mission was established in 1823 by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to promote education and Christianity among the Cherokee. The mission operated until the Indian removal in 1838. 
Gravesite of Reverend Ard Hoyt, the first superintendent, marks the location of the mission near the corner of 38th Street and Godfrey Avenue.

Sequoyah 1760-1843
Born in Tennessee, Sequoyah moved to the Wills Town (DeKalb County, Alabama) area of the Cherokee Nation in 1818.
Here, in 1821, he invented an 86-symbol alphabet providing the Cherokees with the only written Indian language in the United States.
(Sequoyah, Maker of the Cherokee Alphabet)

Confederate War Marker

Fort Payne's Train Museum.
The Fort Payne Depot Museum was erected in 1891. 
It is housed in a unique Richardsonian Romanesque building of locally quarried pink and white sandstone. It served as a depot for the Alabama-Great Southern Railroad for approximately 85 years. The Gussie Killian Collection contains extensive examples of Native American basketry, pottery, and artifacts housed in the north room. Our south room displays the L.A. Dobbs exhibit, along with memorabilia from the Civil War, World War I and II, and the Vietnam War. 

Boom Town Historic District
Around 1889-1891, Fort Payne experienced a major industrial boom, driven by New England investors who speculated heavily on the area's mineral deposits. During this period, several highly ornate commercial and civic buildings, along with the planned park, were constructed along Gault Avenue. The Fort Payne Opera House and other buildings in the same block been built by the Fort Payne Coal & Iron Co., together with the Sawyer Building, the Alabama Great Southern Railroad Depot & Union Park, which retain the integrity of the boomtown era and comprise a historic district listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1989, the year of Fort Payne's centennial.

Fort Payne Train Museum.

Lookout Mountain Ruby Falls

Lookout Mountain Ruby Falls

Inside Ruby Falls, we saw Potato Chip.

Ruby Falls

Inside Ruby Fal, we saw Steak and Potatoes.

Lookout Mountain Ruby Falls

Relaxing after the long trip into the cave

My trip to Ruby Falls

My trip to Ruby Falls

Our last stop, Oga at Ruby Faons in Lookout Mountain. 

We watched a movie, went down an elevator, and then were taken on a guided tour through the caverns to a thundering underground waterfall. 

Cost $18.95 each 

Lookout Mountain Welcome to Ruby Falls

Lookout Mountain
The Chattanooga area was firmly under the control of the Chickamauga Indians at the time of the American Revolution. The Cherokee Indian chiefs had signed peace and land treaties with the Colonial settlers. However, a small group of rebellious Cherokees were not in accord with these treaties and continued unabated warfare with the expanding settlers. They were called the Chickamaugas and were led by Chief Dragging Canoe. They were actively supported by the British through local agents and traders. The Government of North Carolina authorized a Military Campaign against them in the summer of 1782, pledging Support from the Continental Congress. Colonel John Sevier organized a force of some 250 "Nolichucky Riflemen" to pursue the Chickamauga and rescue captives. On September 20, 1782, after several minor encounters, Sevier and his men engaged the Chickamaugas in a battle high in the Palisades at the north end of Lookout Mountain. The Frontiersmen's accurate rifle fire soon overcame their foes. This was an official Revolutionary War engagement and is considered by many to be the LAST "VER-MOUNTAIN" BATTLE OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
The preliminary signing of the peace treaty ending the Revolution was on November 30, 1782.

Lookout Mountain 

We rode to Fort Payne, Alabama, to visit the Group Alabama Museum, the Train Depot Museum, and the city park to see the statues of Teddy Wayne Gentry, Jeffery Alan Cook, Randy Yeuell Owen, and Mark Joel Herndon of the Group Alabama.

The historic markers I took pictures of were: Payne's Fort, Battle of Wauhatchie, Boom Town, Crown Town in Stevenson, Decatur County, Fort Payne City Park, Sequoyah Marker, The Trail of Tears at Bridgeport, and Willis Town Marker.

We ate lunch at Cracker Barrel in South Pittsburg, rode over to Chattanooga, and went down into the cave to see Ruby Falls. 

Ruby Falls is an underground waterfall that is 145 feet high and has been named one of the most Incredible Cave Waterfalls on Earth.

It is America's deepest commercial cave and largest underground waterfall.

We went down an elevator shaft to the cave's floor, where we were given a tour. We talked about the rock formations, and the grand finale was the colorful Ruby Falls, a small hole where water was coming out.

Some of the rock formations that we saw were Totem Pole, Crystal Chandelier, Donkey Formation, 

tobacco leaves, elephant's foot, Steak and Potatoes, Potato Chips, Leaning Tower, Dragon's foot, Beehives, Angle's Wings, Niagara Falls, Weight Watchers Lane, and Leo's passage.

Another great day of sightseeing!