Gulf Shores Alabama to Montgomery – 11 March 2023
On the way into Montgomery, capital of Alabama, we passed the US Gulf Coast’s tallest building which is the RSA (Retirement Systems of Alabama) Battlehouse Tower. The foundation slab is over 7 feet thick, with just over 5 feet of it resting below the natural water table of downtown Mobile, Alabama. The spire, installed by a Sikorsky S-61 helicopter on the 16 September 2006, brought the building to its finished height of 745 feet. During construction, five hurricanes affected Mobile, causing delays in the construction of this building. The building cost $220m to build. The Renaissance Riverview Plaza Hotel on the right stands 374 ft high and it’s spire was designed to complement the RSA building.
We stayed overnight in Montgomery in a nicely laid out RV park which had a large lake to one side filled with ducks and geese. As we arrived quite late in the afternoon, we only had a few hours to spare before sunset, so we ventured downtown and came across a statue of Hank Williams. Hank sang Jambalaya- the song I used on our swamp boat tour video. There was also a Hank Williams museum with Hank’s 1952 Baby Blue Cadillac in which he made his final journey, along with suits, boots, hats, ties, awards and more. I wish we could have seen it. Hank was born in 1923 in Mount Olive, Alabama and moved to Montgomery in 1937. Here he formed a band called the Drifting Cowboys and landed a regular spot on a local radio station, WSFA, in 1941. Hank’s songs and performances were legendary even before his death at the early age of 29 of heart failure. More than 25,000 mourners came out to pay their respects to the most famous hillbilly singer/songwriter in history of American music. Hank took 12 songs to #1, and had 55 charted singles in his career. He is listed as the writer or co-writer of 167 songs in his lifetime.
We then walked around Montgomery’s Riverfront which besides providing beautiful views of the Alabama river, contains many historic landmarks. The brick and limestone Union Railway Station with its stained glass windows was built in 1898, and at its peak serviced 44 trains a day. Now being used as a visitors centre. The ramp leading to the Riverfront under the railway track was once used by horse drawn wagons and slaves to move hundreds of cotton bales to the river steamers. Outside of the station are 2 statues of soldiers. The first statue is of a WW1 soldier from the Rainbow division (These units came from 26 different states) carrying the dead body of a comrade. Its twin had been erected in 2011 on the battlefield at Croix Rouge Farm in France. The second is of a fallen soldier. Along the waterfront are panels commemorating the history of Alabama. We also saw a commemorative marker showing the highest recorded level of the Alabama River in Montgomery which was 58’ 1” in 1961.
In 1851, enslaved people bought by the State of Alabama constructed a rail line to connect Montgomery to Atlanta, Georgia. As more and more slave traders used this rail system, hundreds of enslaved people began arriving at the Montgomery train station each day. Now connected to the rest of the South by boat and by rail, Montgomery became the principal slave market in Alabama. Walking through town you are constantly reminded of this past. There is a National Memorial for Peace and Justice which features the names of more than 4,000 African American victims of racial terror lynching killed between 1877 and 1950, and The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. The museum is built on the site of a former warehouse where enslaved Black people were imprisoned before sale. The 11,000-square-foot museum sits midway between Montgomery’s historic slave market and the main river dock and train station that transported tens of thousands of enslaved people at the height of the domestic slave trade. We were not able to see the museum on this trip but something we will definitely make a point of visiting next time. Looking at Montgomery now it’s hard to imagine all the atrocities that took place at that time.
There was so much to see in Montgomery I really wished we had more time here. This is definitely a place we want to return to in the future to do more exploring. I was particularly interested in going to the slavery museum to learn more.
