- The official beverage of Alabama is Conecuh Ridge Whiskey. Yep, it’s alcohol, and Alabama is the only state with an official alcoholic beverage. That could explain why there are places in Alabama with names like Smuteye, Chigger Hill and Scratch Ankle. After all, what sober person would come up with names like that? (More interesting Alabama place names.)
- Alabama has 22 state parks and reserves overseen by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
- In 1836 Alabama declared Christmas a legal holiday, the first state in the nation to do so.
- Huntsville, Alabama is known as “Rocket City” because it is where rockets such as the Saturn V and other space technology were developed.
- If you’ve ever lost baggage while traveling on an airline, you might try finding it at the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, AL.
- Krewes at Mobile’s Mardi Gras started the tradition of tossing moon pies instead of Cracker Jack’s boxes from parade floats in the 70’s. Mobile now has a Moonpie Drop every New Year’s Eve in honor of the tradition.
- Did you know the only US coin in circulation featuring Braille lettering is the Alabama state quarter issued to commemorate Tuscumbia-born Helen Keller?
- Alabama is the only state with all of the natural resources to make iron and steel and Birmingham commemorates it’s steel-making legacy with the world’s largest cast-iron statue, Vulcan, which stands 56 feet tall.
- Alabamians love history as demonstrated by the fact that The Alabama Department of Archives is the oldest state-funded archival agency in the United States.
- Although Alabama has a short coastline, it is a major seafood producer and the eastern shore of Mobile Bay happens to be the only place in the world that regularly plays host to a jubilee. During a jubilee, many kinds of shrimp, crabs and fish will spontaneously swarm near the water’s edge along a particular stretch of shoreline, a phenomenon caused by naturally occurring poor oxygen levels in the bay water.
- The “Free State of Winston” in Alabama refers to a county where a large number of residents chose to remain neutral during the Civil War, but were eventually forced to either join the Confederate Army or flee the county.
