Alabama Heritage Magazine Launches Alabama 200 Celebration

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The summer 2017 issue of Alabama Heritage magazine features expanded articles, a pullout map and a detailed foldout timeline that highlight Alabama becoming a territory.

The issue is published in conjunction with the launching of Alabama 200, a three-year-long celebration of the Alabama Bicentennial Commemoration.

Features include “A Long Road to Becoming a Territory” by Edwin C. Bridges, former director of the Alabama Department of Archives and History. In addition, historian Mike Bunn details how the Mississippi-Alabama border was well-debated and became “more or less arbitrary,” and historian George Shorter takes a look at Alabama’s first capital in St. Stephens, which was a thriving town during the territorial era and is now a historical park.

Award-winning author John Hall, who is recently deceased, is joined by his wife, Rosa Hall, in the feature “The Three Sisters.” The Halls explain how squash, beans and corn provided Indians in the Southeast a nutrient-rich diet. Eventually, these foods, along with other traditional Native American food sources, became part of the traditional Southern diet as well.

Other features include stories on land claims and surveying in the Alabama territory; the varied peoples and cultures that helped shape the territory during its brief transition to statehood; and the migrations to the wilderness of early Alabama during Alabama Fever.

Alabama Heritage is co-published by The University of Alabama, The University of Alabama at Birmingham and the Alabama Department of Archives and History. The quarterly magazine covers a variety of subjects related to Alabama history and culture and has garnered numerous local, regional and national awards over the years.