Uniquely Alabama

From unique flora and fauna to the World’s largest, Alabama is home to many things that make the state and it’s regions truly unique.

  • Space Camp(link is external) – Only place in the world where you can train to become an astronaut. Space Camp is an educational camp in Huntsville, Alabama, on the grounds of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center museum at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. More than 900,000 campers have graduated since 1982, including several who became astronauts.
  • Depth of Civil Rights(link is external) – Alabama has more sites along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail than any other state on the trail. From the time Dr. King became pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, to the founding of the SCLC, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Children’s Campaign, Selma-to-Montgomery March all these events that changed the world happened in Alabama
  • Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum(link is external) – It is the largest motorcycle museum in the world, as well as the largest collection of Lotus race cars. The motorcycle collection includes bikes dating from 1904 to present production. More than 1000 motorcycles are on display. They come from 16 countries and represent over 140 different marques from as far away from the US as Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden.
  • Vulcan(link is external) – The Vulcan statue is the largest cast iron statue in the world, and is the city symbol of Birmingham, Alabama, reflecting its roots in the iron and steel industry. It was created as Birmingham’s entry for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (1904 World’s Fair) in St. Louis, Missouri. The statue is the world’s largest iron-ore statue, and among the nation’s tallest.
  • 1st Mardi Gras in America(link is external) – It is the oldest annual Carnival celebration in the United States, started by Frenchman Nicholas Langlois in 1703 when Mobile was the capital of Louisiana. This was fifteen years before New Orleans was founded, although today their celebrations are much more widely known for all the current traditions such as masked balls, parades, floats and throws were first created there.
  • Dismals Canyon – Dismalites(link is external) – is a sandstone gorge near Phil Campbell. Dismals Canyon is one of only a few places where insects called dismalites (Orfelia fultoni, a distant relative of Arachnocampa) can be found.
  • Fitzgerald Home & Museum(link is external) – The Fitzgerald Museum is the only dedicated museum to the lives and legacies of F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald in the world. It is the last of four extant homes that survived their travels across the world. The museum has been transformed to allow visitors to spend the night in the museum. Bookable thru Airbnb visitors have their choice of either the The Zelda Suite or The Scott Suite.
  • Ave Maria Grotto(link is external) – located in Cullman, a landscaped, 4-acre park on the grounds of St. Bernard Abbey, providing a garden setting for 125 miniature reproductions of some of the most famous religious structures of the world. The stone and concrete models are the work of Brother Joseph Zoettl, a Benedictine monk of St. Bernard Abbey, who devoted some 50 years to the project.
  • Bamahenge(link is external) – is a full-scale fiberglass replica of England’s Stonehenge located on the grounds of Barber Marina near Josephine, Alabama. It was designed and built by artist Mark Cline, at the request of marina owner George W. Barber.

Media Contacts

Graham Roderick, [email protected](link sends e-mail)
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