Tuscaloosa Transportation Museum (Black Warrior River)

Locking a River 1884-1918

Beginning in 1884, the whitewater rapids, sparkling shoals, and free-flowing waters of the Black Warrior River were “tamed” for easier navigation. 

   Over the next 30 years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a total of 17 locks and dams on the length of the Black Warrior.  The dams created many miles of deep water, and the locks enabled ships to float gently upward or downward to “lock through” former shoals and waterfalls. 

   The rocky outcroppings of the river’s natural fall line were submerged under the newly configured river.   Pre-lock river ecology was swept away.   

[bottom of column, like an old-fashioned railroad timetable]

TUSCALOOSA TIME-TABLE

• 1884:  The federal Rivers and Harbors Act appropriates $50,000 to work on a 14-mile section of the river from Tuscaloosa to Daniels Creek; the Army Corps designs three locks and dams.   
• 1887:  The Tuscaloosa Coal, Iron & Land Company forms to capture and market the region’s prime natural resources.
• 1888:  The Army Corps begins building the first lock at Tuscaloosa.
• 1890:  The city gets its first electric lights.
• 1896:  The first commercial tugboat and coal barge steamboat pass through Tuscaloosa’s three new locks.
• 1899:  Central Iron & Foundry forms near Holt to produce pig iron and other products. 
• 1903:  The Empire Coke Plant fires up to supply coke for Holt’s blast furnaces.
• 1916:  Happy Birthday to our town!!  Tuscaloosa is 100 years old!

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Created by Congress in 1802, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the nation’s engineering design firm:  Corps engineers design military and civil projects ranging from the Washington Monument to military bases, lighthouses, levees, bridges, and dams.  

In Alabama, the federal engineers arrived in the 1870s with plans to clear snags, build temporary dams, and dredge and deepen river bottoms.  The goal:  To open up waterways reaching rich inland resources of coal, iron ore, kaolin, and other industrial materials….and get these valuable industrial materials to coastal ports. 

The National Prisoners of War Museum, Andersonville National Historic Site, GA

Prisoner of War! [gallery intro panel]

For those who are captured, the answer to "Who is a POW?" quickly becomes all too real.  But "Who or what is a POW?" is a more complex question than it first appears.

Why POW Definitions Matter [panel text]

In theory, captives who are legally defined as POWs will be treated humanely according to international standards and will be released when the conflict is over. 
    But POW definitions are often subject to interpretation by the enemy.  Should rebel fighters in a civil war be treated as traitors, POWs, civilian guerillas, or terrorists?   Should a downed pilot disguised in civilian clothing be held as a POW, or shot on the spot as a spy?   
    Who is to say?  The argument is as old as humanity, and as new as this morning's headlines.

Capturing "Johnny Reb" [interactive flipbook question]

In the U.S. Civil War, "Johnny Reb" or "Rebels" were nicknames for Confederate soldiers, because they rebelled against the U.S. government. 
   Some people thought Union troops should treat captured Confederates as insurgents, rebels, or traitors – crimes punishable by death. 
    Were captured Confederate soldiers legally entitled to humane treatment as POWs?

The Museum of Mobile, Alabama

The Museum of Mobile, which covers some 300 years of south Alabama history, won praise from the Journal of American History for its "innovative exhibit design and imaginative interpretive strategies" and its success, "To degree that is rare in public institutions of the Deep South, [to] speak in a dmocratic voice" with "an eye for both diversity and commonality." One example:  visitors walk past rows of bare feet in manacles in the hold of a slave ship before arriving before a simple but compleeing interactive -- a slave auction block.  As mothers, fathers, and children take turns stepping up on the auction block, they confront "The Value of a Human Life" for people held as slaves.  

The Value of a Human Life [Step-up Auction Block]

For the people who were held as slaves in the antebellum South, being sold was a constant, terrible fear.

    Step up on the auction block. Can you imagine being sent away from family and friends to an unknown place, with no control at all over your fate?

While some plantation owners refused to split up families, others were uncaring. Individuals were sold to the highest bidder, with price depending on age, gender, size, health, and skills.

If you’re a strong, healthy male, you might fetch $1,300 or more, especially if you’re a trained carpenter or blacksmith. Women sold for $1,000 or so, and children for about $700. In contemporary dollars, that’s about $26,000 for a man; $20,000 for a woman; and $14,000 for a child.

Wheel of Mixed Fortune [interactive roulette wheel]

In days gone by, living in Mobile was a gamble, a sort of cosmic roulette.  If you made it through your days in Mobile without suffering from a hurricane, a fire, or yellow fever, you were really lucky.

Life in Mobile is much safer today, thanks to storm-tracker technology, modern medicine, and speedy fire-fighters and equipment!

How would the “Wheel of Mixed Fortune” have changed your life in early Mobile?  Spin the wheel three times, then add up your score. 

Less than 0:   You’re unlucky.  Don’t strike any matches! 

  1 to 10: You have your share of joy… and sorrow.

  Over 10:  You win a long, happy, wealthy life. 

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia

What’s Down There? [Walk-in Swamp Submarine interactive]

What if you could tour the Okefenokee in your own Swamp Submarine?  What mysterious creatures would you find?

Look through the portholes to explore the Okefenokee’s  underwater world. Then check the drawers to see what else we found.

 Fascinating Fish   [Swamp Submarine Porthole]

Going fishing?  Down here below the surface, the tea-colored waters of the Okefenokee hide nearly 40 species of fish.  The water is calm, but don’t be fooled:  It’s a fish-eat-fish world.  Look through the portholes for these members of the fishy food chain….

Eeek!  An Okefenokee Salamander Quiz

If dwarf sirens have two legs, striped newts have four legs, and a Southern two-lined salamander has two lines running up its back, how many toes are on a two-toed amphiuma?

Answer:  Eight, of course!  If you were confused by this North American salamander’s common name -- the Congo eel - you probably forgot to count the two toes on each of its tiny back legs.

 Life in the Cypress Canopy [Stairs to Fire Tower] 

The Okefenokee teems with life above and below what you see on the surface.   Many plant and animal species live in the forest canopy--the tangle of tree limbs, vines, and Spanish moss at the top of the forest.  Like all the Okefenokee’s habitats, the cypress canopy exists because of the age-old interplay of earth, air, fire and water in this unique ecosystem. Climb the tower to get a “bird’s-eye view.”  If you’re really observant, you’ll spot at least ten species who prefer life above the ground.

John Muir National Historic Site, Martinez, CA

National Park Service

Long-Range Interpretive Plan (excerpt)

Since 1964, when the historic Alhambra Valley estate and orchards once operated by John Muir came under the protection of the National Park Service, this small, moderately attended site has had notable success in preserving historic structures and re-assembling important parcels of land, including the Muir family cemetery and the undeveloped 326-acre expanse of Mt. Wanda.

But the site has also suffered some disappointments. A busy freeway bisects the property, separating the Victorian mansion from the pastoral heights of Mt. Wanda. The property entrance and parking lot on Alhambra Avenue remain inadequate. An ambitious plan to fund an environmental education and interpretive center has been unsuccessful. Perhaps most significantly, interpretation and visitor experiences have been adversely impacted over the years by inadequate space for visitors, limited staff , and the inherent contradictions of using a Victorian house with period furnishings as the primary vehicle for interpreting the extraordinary life and accomplishments of John Muir.

This Long-Range Interpretive Plan offers guidance for enriching interpretive programming and improving visitor experiences with John Muir National Historic Site over the next ten years. The plan proposes short-, mid- and long-term strategies, including rethinking the current historic house approach and refurbishing the existing visitor center, to revitalize the site’s interpretive program in support of three primary interpretive themes.

In a series of workshops with stakeholders, including volunteers, donors, educators, community leaders, and members of the Muir family, the planning team identified the following themes as central to the visitor experience at John Muir National Historic Site.