In this 1937 painting, Joseph Pollet renders the wedding of Juan Ortiz, a scout and interpreter for Hernando de Soto, and the Indian Princess Sa-Owana in 1540. The hogs under the table, as well as the one being served on a tray, were shared with the Chickasaws by De Soto. (Courtesy Pontotoc County Historical Society.)

The cuisine of the antebellum South never failed to elicit comment—often disdainful comment—from those who passed through. "Rusty salt pork.and musty corn-meal dodgers," complained one traveler, "was my fare often for weeks at a time." Clabber, a delicacy made from soured milk, curds, and whey, provoked active disgust rather than simple culinary fatigue. For those who called the South their home, however, pork, corn, and milk were the essential substance of life. Alabama cuisine, as vast and as varied as it is today, has its roots in these core foods. The southern capacity to make the most of every available resources would prove essential as the frontier gave way to a cotton kingdom, and even more as the cotton kingdom gave way to the Civil War.

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As many quail hunters and field trial enthusiasts know, a good bird dog, with its graceful orchestrations, can transform an ordinary hunting event and make the humblest hunter feel like an accomplished sportsman. (Published by Currier & Ives, between 1856 and 1907. Courtesy Library of Congress.)

Quail hunting in the old South had long been a favorite pastime of wealthy planters and blue bloods, but early in the twentieth century, the "gentleman's amusement" evolved into a full-fledged industry in Alabama—and the pedigree of the dog would become far more important than the pedigree of the hunter. Thanks in part to industrialist-sportsmen such as L.B. Maytag, one county in particular would become synonymous with quail hunting and the Field Trial, where quail hunters and their dogs would compete to prove their worth. Called "the Field Trial Capital of the World," Bullock County, Alabama, was home to Maytag's Sedgefield Plantation and some of the best dogs and trainers the sport has ever seen.

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Chief Red Eagle—also known as William Weatherford—was an unlikely resistance leader in the Creek War. The eldest son of a successful Scots trader and a Creek princess, he moved comfortably between the two disparate and contradictory worlds of the frontier. Travelers noted the incongruity of seeing Creek warriors camped in his pastures while Americans dined, danced, and slept in his home. While he initially opposed the Red Sticks—Creeks who were ready to go to war with the encroaching settlers and those Indians who accommodated them—in 1813 he led the bloody Red Stick assault on Fort Mims. The next day, when General Claiborne attacked the Red Sticks at the encampment called Holy Ground, Weatherford was the last Creek warrior standing. His daring escape across the Alabama River became the stuff of legends.

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Built in the mid-nineteenth century, the two conjoined houses that comprise Montgomery's Winter Place—now mostly obscured by vegetation—once exhibited one wealthy family's fondness for the then-current architectural fashion of "Italian villas."

Places in Peril: Alabama's Endangered Historic Landmarks for 2004
by Melanie Betz Gregory

Once again, the Alabama Historical Commission and the Alabama Preservation Alliance have teamed up to profile historic sites throughout the state that are in danger of being lost to Alabamians forever. This year's list include the only antebellum railroad depot left in the United States, one of the state's oldest YMCA buildings, and an important early cemetery containing the grave of a Revolutionary War soldier, as well as several important homes, including Montgomery's historic Winter Place and the Otto Marx Mansion, an architecturally significant Mission Revival style home on Birmingham's Highland Avenue. Many of these sites are threatened by inappropriate development and lack of preservation planning as well as by lack of funding and owner neglect.

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