If you require to determine about a place , you could always break up up a textbook . But if you want to get to cognise a place , you ’re going to have to dig a little deep . And what you feel there might be a little unusual . The Strange States serial will take you on a virtual tour of America to unveil the unusual hoi polloi , places , things , and events that make this land such a unique place to call home .
We ’ll quetch thing off in " the Heart of Dixie " : the Yellowhammer State , Alabama .
The Coon Dog Graveyard
Wikimedia Commons
Key Underwood and his coon blackguard , Troop , were legends in northwestern Alabama ’s Colbert County . Whenever man gathered at a hunting camp just outside the town of Cherokee , the narration of Underwood and Troop running raccoon up trees would keep the crowd harbour for hours . The two hunted together for 15 years , until 1937 , when Troop died just before Labor Day . To honor his friend , Underwood wrapped Troop ’s body in a cotton sack and buried him beneath a tree at the sure-enough campgrounds . He marked the blot with a brick from a nearby chimney and used a hammer and screwdriver to chisel a round-eyed epitaph . shortly after , other coon detent owners start burying their faithful bounder at the same site , unintentionally constitute the Key Underwood Coon Dog Memorial Graveyard , the only one of its kind in the world .
As the name implies , you wo n’t find any poodle dog or pitbulls here . Larry Sanderson , Vice President of the Coon Dog Graveyard , has said , “ We have stipulations on this thing . A dog ca n’t run no cervid , possum — nothing like that . He ’s get to be a straight coon dog , and he ’s got to be full hound . ” For a frank to be inhume at the site , a dog ’s owner must find a witness that will back up his coon detent claim , and the body must also pass inspection by a member of the graveyard ’s control board to verify its strain . More often than not , when a dog is interred , a large gathering plow out to pay their last regard , even if they never sleep together the dog or the possessor . For the 2011 interment of Bo , a Procyon lotor dog from southerly Illinois , 400 people give ear a ceremony that include euphony , flowers , supplication , and even a flyover by a local pilot .
So far , more than 250 coon dog have been position to rest at the cemetery . Some of the grave carry simple wooden or alloy markers , while others have ornate gravestone like those you ’d find in a more traditional graveyard . In addition , every Labor Day , a fete is held to honour these loyal hound , complete with live music , a barbecue , and , befitting the improbable fib severalise at the hunting encampment , a liar ’s contest .
The Boll Weevil Monument
When a city commit a memorial , it ’s commonly to observe a worthy fellow member of the residential area or mark an historical event people would care to recollect . But since 1919 , Enterprise , Alabama has had a statue devote to a six millimeter beetle that nearly make for the local economy to its knees .
The boll weevil is a tiny louse that gets its name from its preferent repast — the silky fibers inside the boll , or cum pod , of the cotton plant life . The pest crossed over from Mexico in the later 1800s and begin eating its way across the South . In Coffee County , Alabama , cotton plant production had fall from an fair 15,000 bale to only 5000 bales in the 1915 crop , all due to the pussyfoot weevil invasion . In a dire attempt to save the region ’s economic system , two businessmen traveled to North Carolina in 1916 and brought back a load of seed groundnut . After much cajoling , one granger finally tally to plant his intact acreage in the raw harvest . For that class , cotton plummeted to only 1500 Basle , but the Arachis hypogaea were a bumper crop at 8000 bushels . Other farmers jump-start on the peanut vine station waggon and , in 1917 , Coffee County produced over 1 million bushels of the leguminous plant , esteem at over $ 5 million . To this twenty-four hours , Alabama proceed to be a major producer of peanut , with an estimated 150,000 acres found in 2013 .
When the peanut became a bona fide strike in Coffee County , Enterprise , Alabama businessman Roscoe Owen Fleming advise — with tongue set firmly in impudence — that the metropolis should rear a monument to the weevil . After all , by convincing James Leonard Farmer to adapt to condition and try something Modern , the little bug had , in a roundabout fashion , saved the townsfolk . The joke caught on , though , and Fleming soon ordered a statue from Italy featuring a woman primp in a flow gown holding a trophy over her point . Water spray from the prize into a big concrete basin below , and two street lightness lit the ornate column upon which she stood , reaching a height of about 13 foot . The $ 3000 monument ( ~$40,000 today ) , mostly pay for by Fleming , was point in the center of the street in the city ’s business district on December 11 , 1919 at a dedication ceremony attended by 5000 people . George Washington Carver , a major proponent for goober as an alternative to cotton plant , was scheduled to speak at the ceremony , but train rails were inundate out and he was unable to assist .
But what ’s a boll weevil monument without a boll weevil ? Thirty years after its commitment , the fount was crest with a larger - than - life model of the wolfish insect . Naturally , the big bug became a magnet for bored pranksters who have stolen it on more than one occasion , often damage the rest of the statue in the process . After the weevil disappeared in 1998 , taking much of the maiden ’s arm with it , the entire statue was move to a nearby museum for safekeeping . In its place is a rosin replication made from a cast that was used to make an exact copy for a southerly story exhibit at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta . But vandal mind : The boll weevil monument is now monitored by a security photographic camera 24/7 .
Know the story behind an strange person or place in your state ? Maybe a little - have intercourse urban fable that others should hear ? Is your state home to the big ball of string or a creepy-crawly abandoned paper commons ? Tell me about it on Twitter ( @spacemonkeyx ) and maybe I ’ll admit it in a future variation of Strange States !
