Many of Alabama’s cities have fascinating histories, and I would count Anniston, the Model City, among them. Anniston had its beginnings as a planned community during the Reconstruction Era. It started with a business deal between Samuel Noble, whose family owned a large iron company in Georgia, and Daniel Tyler, a railroad manager and former iron manufacturer and Union general. The Noble family had purchased a large plot of iron- and timber-rich land in east Alabama, but needed investors to develop it. Together, Noble and Tyler formed the Woodstock Iron Company in 1872. A year later, its first furnace began churning out more than 100 tons of pig iron a week, using charcoal (made from the surrounding timber) as fuel. 

My love for books is equally accompanied by my love for movies. Whenever I find out one of my favorite books is going to be made into a movie, I am filled with both excitement and apprehension. In my experience, directors and screenplay writers are rarely able to do a great book justice on the big screen. Still, it is fun to see characters that you have only seen in your head come to life. Though Alabama has never been the #1 destination for movies to be filmed, several movies have been filmed on location here in recent history.

Three summers ago, I had the opportunity to intern at my congressman’s office in Washington, DC. One of my duties was to help with tours of the Capitol, and one of its many interesting features is the National Statuary Hall Collection. Throughout the building are statues from the collection representing the fifty states. Since 1864, each state has been allowed to donate up to two statues of important figures in its history to the collection, which was completed in 2005. States may still donate new statues, but they must replace an existing one. Originally, all statues were housed in Statuary Hall, but as the collection grew, statues had to be moved to other areas of the Capitol. Currently, Alabama’s two statues are Joseph Wheeler, located in Statuary Hall, and Helen Keller, located in the Visitor’s Center.