Southerners love their traditions and history, and there are plenty of spots throughout the region you can visit to learn more about the events that shaped the South.
Birmingham
The 1960s were a turbulent time in Birmingham. Marches, riots and a church bombing put the city on the front line of the civil rights movement, which is memorialized throughout the town.
Start with the Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail (Sixth Avenue North and 16th Street, heritagetrail.birminghamal.gov), a self-guided tour that includes informational signs and photographs of important people, places and events at key stops, including Kelly Ingram Park, where statues of snarling police dogs commemorate a protest. Stop at the now-closed Birmingham Jail to see where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. penned his famous "Letter From Birmingham Jail" while imprisoned in April 1963.
Tours are available at the 16th Street Baptist Church (1530 Sixth Ave. North, 205-251-9402, 16thstreetbaptist.org), the scene of a September, 1963, bombing that killed four girls and injured 20 other church members. The church includes a stained glass window, called the Wales Window because it was a gift from the citizens of Wales after the bombing.
Visitors to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (520 16th St. North, 866-328-9696, bcri.org, @BCRIorg), which seeks to "promote human and civil rights worldwide through education," can view the actual door to the jail cell that held King and a replica of a bus in an exhibit commemorating the Freedom Riders campaign in 1961.
Chesnee, S.C., to Augusta
More than 200 skirmishes and battles were fought in South Carolina during the American Revolution, so there are plenty of stops for history buffs along what's often called the Revolutionary War Trail, which ends in Augusta.
Just east of Chesnee, S.C., the Cowpens National Battlefield (4001 Chesnee Highway, Gaffney, S.C., 864-461-2828, nps.gov/cowp, @CowpensNB) is where the Americans obliterated a British force, killing 110 soldiers and taking about 200 prisoners on Jan. 17, 1781, to help take control of South Carolina. The battlefield is small, especially compared with Civil War sites in other states, and easily walkable. Signs highlight key moments of the battle and ranger-led tours also are available.
It's a strange name for a town, but there's plenty of history at the Ninety Six National Historic Site (1103 Highway 248 South, Ninety Six, S.C., nps.gov/nisi), where two battles were fought, including the first Southern clash of the war on Nov. 19-21, 1775. Part of a British fort, which was the scene of a 28-day siege in 1781, is still visible. A visitors center is open Wednesdays through Sundays.
The remains of George Walton and Lyman Hall, two signers of the Declaration of Independence, are buried beneath the Signers' Monument in Augusta (500 block of Greene Street at intersection of Monument Street, facebook.com/AugustaSignersMonument). The 50-foot white granite obelisk was dedicated on July 4, 1848, and a historical marker gives brief bios of Walton, Hall and Button Gwinnett, Georgia's third signer. His body also was supposed to be reinterred there, but its whereabouts are not known.
Kure Beach, N.C.
The jagged and rusted remains of hundreds of wrecked ships are beneath the waves of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North Carolina, giving divers plenty of areas to explore.
The waters of Kure Beach (877-406-2356, visitkurebeachnc.com, @KureBeachNC), which is about 19 miles south of Wilmington, are the resting place of about 200 shipwrecks, including several in about 50-70 feet of water, but there are others in deeper water farther from shore. There are a variety of vessels, from tugs to Civil War blockade runners. If you don't want to dive among the wrecks, you can hunt for fossilized teeth on Fossil Ledge or Megalodon Ledge, where megalodon teeth, shark teeth and other bones and fossils can be found.
Several companies offer charters for those who want to explore the wrecks or just hunt for bones on the ledges. These include Aquatic Safaris & Dive Emporium (7220 Wrightsville Ave., Suite A, Wilmington, 910-392-4386, aquaticsafaris.com), Carolina Diving Adventures (100 Carl Winner Ave., Carolina Beach, 910-264-8060, carolinadivingadventures.com) and Jet Lag Charters (Carolina Beach Yacht Basin, Carolina Beach, 910-352-1734, facebook.com/JetLagChartersLlc).
Nashville
President Andrew Jackson moved to the Nashville area in 1804, buying a 640-acre plantation called the Hermitage (4580 Rachel's Lane, 615-889-2941, thehermitage.com, @7thpresident). He increased the size of the estate to more than 1,000 acres and lived there — except when his other home was the White House — until he died in his bedroom on June 8, 1845. Jackson's home and the adjoining grounds were transformed into a National Historic Site that has been visited by 15 million people since opening in 1889.
Stay in luxury at the Hermitage Hotel (231 Sixth Ave., 1-888-888-9414, thehermitagehotel.com, @HermitageHotel), which took its name from Jackson's plantation when it opened in downtown Nashville in 1910 and is the only AAA five diamond hotel in Tennessee. The hotel closed in 1977, two years after being placed on the National Register of Historic Places, but was renovated and reopened in 1981. A $17 million renovation from 2000 to 2003 helped it earn its prestigious rating.
Alabama
Alabama was home to many Native American tribes, including the one for which the state was named, so there are several sites dedicated to their heritage.
Like Georgia, there are several mounds in Alabama, including those at Moundville Archaeological Park (13075 Moundville Archaeological Park, Moundville, 205-371-8732, moundville.ua.edu), which was the site of a 300-acre village that included a protective wooden wall and 26 earthen mounds. Many of the mounds, which were either the bases of homes for nobles or used for burial purposes, are still visible despite being practically abandoned since the 1500s.
More mounds can be explored at the Oakville Indian Mounds Education Center (1219 County Road 187, Danville, 256-905-2494, oakvilleindianmounds.com), where the museum features a 12-foot statue of Sequoyah, the Cherokee who created a method to write his tribe's language. The taller of the two surviving mounds, which are believed to have been built before A.D. 1000, is about 27 feet high.
Horseshoe Bend National Military Park (11288 Horseshoe Bend Road, Daviston, 256-234-7111, nps.gov/hobe), just more than an hour west of LaGrange on the Tallapoosa River, was the scene of a decisive battle between the Red Sticks and U.S. forces, state militia and Native American allies under the command of Andrew Jackson. In March, the park marked the 200th anniversary of the battle, in which more than 800 Red Sticks, who were part of Creek Nation, were killed.
Mississippi River
Instead of heading out to the open sea on board one of those huge luxury cruise ships, slow down and enjoy a voyage on the Mississippi River in a stately steamboat, the way folks traveled the great waterway in the 19th century.
Many nine-day trips are available on the lower part of the Mississippi from American Queen Steamboat Co. (40 S. Main St., Memphis, 901-654-2600, americanqueensteamboatcompany.com), which sails from either Memphis or New Orleans, and includes stops in cities throughout Mississippi and Louisiana, including Vicksburg and Baton Rouge. The company says its steamboat, the American Queen, is the largest one ever built, and includes several types of staterooms, a restaurant, live music and the Grand Saloon.
American Cruise Lines (1-800-460-4518, americancruiselines.com, @American_Cruise) has a new Mississippi riverboat ready to join the Queen of the Mississippi for cruises on the lower part of the river, originating in St. Louis, Memphis or New Orleans. The ships are designed to look like the paddlewheelers of 150 years ago, but feature modern amenities, including private balconies, satellite TV and Wi-Fi.
Andrew Jackson also made a mark in New Orleans, and you can visit the 1815 battlefield he helped make famous on daily cruises aboard the Creole Queen, run by New Orleans Paddlewheels (365 Canal St., Suite 820, New Orleans, 1-800-445-4109, creolequeen.com, @CreoleQueenNola). If history isn't for you, the Creole Queen also offers a three-hour dinner cruise.
New Orleans
Ghost stories abound in New Orleans, where tours take visitors to houses, cemeteries and other areas of a city that’s famous for voodoo, vampires and tales from the crypt.
Haunted myths extend to many of the city's hotels, including Bourbon Orleans Hotel (717 Orleans St., 504-523-2222, bourbonorleans.com, @BourbonOrleans), which on its website claims to be one of New Orleans' top haunted hotels. If you're undaunted by spooky specters, be on the lookout for the ghosts of a Confederate soldier, children, a dancer and nuns — from the time when the building was a convent — who are said to roam the halls and rooms.
The ghost of a child named Maurice is said to stay at Hotel Monteleone (214 Royal St., 504-523-3341, hotelmonteleone.com, @hotelmonteleone), searching for his parents, who were staying there when his dad was killed in a carriage accident and his mom died of a broken heart.
If you love country music, you might want to stay at Audubon Cottages (509 Dauphine St., 504-561-5858, auduboncottages.com), where the ghost of a Confederate soldier is said to turn on radios — but only to country music — when he roams. Voices have been heard in two of the cottages, which also reputedly have ghosts who apparently like to pull at the feet of sleeping guests.
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