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West Point Manufacturing Company

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Alabama, Chambers County, Valley
Cornerstones of Chattahoochee Mfg. Co., Langdale, Ala., and Alabama & Georgia Mfg. Co., River View, Ala., were laid on August 1, 1866. Mills used Chattahoochee River water power for operation of spindles and looms. Planters and businessmen of Chambers County, Ala., and West Point, Ga., invested the capital for these ventures, providing a new way of life to a war stricken people.

In 1880, West Point Manufacturing Company was organized from the Chattahoochee mill. The business genius, enterprise, and vision of LaFayette Lanier, (1845-1910), president 1896-1910, were largely responsible for the industrial and civic development of “The Valley.”

(Industry & Commerce • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Lanier High School

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Alabama, Chambers County, Valley

Side 1
The school was located at three different sites on Cherry Drive. Its beginning was in The Blue Hall Building adjacent to Goodsell Methodist Church. Later it was moved to the Dallas/Jackson Home and became the Jackson Hill School. In 1921, George H. Lanier provided funds to annex high school space. It became a part of Lanett City Schools, and the name changed to Lanier High. Lanier High was accredited in 1935 and six students constituted the first graduating class. The Darden family donated land and in 1937 a new school was built for grades 3-12 on the present site. Later, the Home Economics Building and Shop were added.

Side 2
Until 1959 Lanier High was the only school in The Greater Valley area that conferred high school diplomas on Black students. Reuben Dallas, S.Q. Bryant and L.B. Sykes were the principals who served from the early 1920s-1969. System-wide restructuring resulted in Lanier High losing grades 7-12, and in 1970 it became L.B. Sykes Lanett Jr. High with grades 6, 7 & 8. L.B. Sykes was accredited in 1974-75. The Lanier High building was demolished during the Summer of 1991, leaving the Home Economics Building as the only remnant of the school.

(African Americans • Education) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Muscogee Indians

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Alabama, Chambers County, Lafayette
Called Creeks
Indian villages nearby
were affiliated with either
Upper or Lower Confederacies
of the Creek Nation.

In colonial times
Spain, France and England
contended for this section.
Indian title ceded in 1832.

(Colonial Era • Native Americans) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Providence Baptist Church

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Alabama, Chambers County, near Lanett

Side 1
Providence Baptist Church was organized before 1836 by Elder Francis Calloway. It was one on the ten charter churches of the East Liberty Baptist Association. The small white frame church was built during the ministry of Reverend George E. Brewer, who served Providence 1883-1889. It has served some of the best known families in all this section including the: Askews, Harringtons, Wolfes, Calloways, Barrows, Meadors, Slaughters, Shealeys, Wallaces, Lancasters, Burdetts, Meadows, and others.

Side 2
Providence has been served by many noted pastors: W.D. Harrington, 21 years; W.C. Bledsoe, W.E. Lloyd, George E. Brewer, C.J. Burden. A.S. Brannon, W.P. Cofield, J.P. Hunter, C.B. Martin, Earle Trent, Oley C. Kidd, Albert Strozier, Carl Burke, Ralph Williams, U.M. Starnes, Jimmy Auchmuty, J.H. Carroll, James Coleman, Robert Crowder. Several early members left Providence Church to go out and form other Baptist churches.

(Churches, Etc.) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Lafayette Presbyterian Church

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Alabama, Chambers County, Lafayette
This structure was built by early settlers from Virginia, Tennessee, and the Carolinas, and subsequently modified. The original building has stood since 1836.

Union Sunday School began here in 1891. Many eminent ministers have filled the pulpit.

(Churches, Etc. • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Lafayette Cemetery

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Alabama, Chambers County, Lafayette
Lafayette Cemetery, also known as Westview, began in 1934 with the death of Miss Sarah Gipson. Many early pioneers and veterans of East Alabama are buried here including Revolutionary War Patriot Capt. Alexander Dunn, Col. Charles McLemore, Confederate soldier Elliott H. Muse, Senator Thomas Heflin, and Edmonia, a servant to the Allen family. The pavilion was constructed in 1903 in the oldest section of the cemetery for the Confederate Memorial Day programs. The Owen K. McLemore Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, led by Sarah Marable Grace, marked all known soldier's graves. There are many examples of the gray-green tombstones attributed to William “Rock” Jackson. His artistic lettering and designs were Masonic in origin.

(Cemeteries & Burial Sites • War, US Civil • War, US Revolutionary) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Fort Cusseta

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Alabama, Lee County, Cusseta
Following the signing of the Creek Treaty in 1832, the early white settlers constructed a 16 by 30 foot hand hewn log fort for protection against a possible Indian uprising from Cussetaw Indian Village on Osanippa Creek just north of here. Walls of the fort were 4 and 6 feet high, with portholes at height of 4 feet, still visible after 140 years. Last known fort of its kind in Southeast.

(Forts, Castles • Native Americans • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid / Pat Garrett, "The Man Who Shot Billy the Kid"

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Alabama, Chambers County, Cusseta

Side 1
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

As sheriff of Lincoln County, Pat Garrett was charged with tracking down and arresting Billy the Kid, a friend from Garrett's saloon keeping days in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. He was captured in December 1880 and was subsequently convicted of murder. However Billy the Kid escaped from jail on April 18, 1881. Garrett tracked him to Fort Sumner on July 14 where he was shot and killed. In 1889 Garrett moved to Uvalde, Texas where he was elected county commissioner. He was appointed sheriff of Dona Ana County, New Mexico in 1896. On December 20, 1901 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed him U.S. customs collector in El Paso, Texas, a position he held for five years. Garrett was murdered by Jesse Wayne Brazel on February 29, 1908. He was buried in the Old Fellows Cemetery in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Side 2
Pat Garrett, “The Man Who Shot Billy the Kid”

One of six children, Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett was born near Cusseta, Alabama on June 5, 1850 to John Lumpkin Garrett and Elizabeth Ann Jarvis. The Garrett family moved to Claiborne Parish, Louisiana in 1853. In 1869 Pat Garrett left the family plantation to become a buffalo hunter in Texas. In 1880, following the death of his first wife Juanita Gutierrez, he married her sister Apolonaria in Lincoln County, New Mexico. They were the parents of nine children. In November 1880 Garrett was elected Lincoln County Sheriff. Lincoln County was then embrolied in a struggle for political and financial control of the county. Billy the Kid, also known as Henry McCarty or William H. Bonney, was the focus of this feud after he murdered Sheriff William Brady on April 1, 1878.

(Notable Persons) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

First Rock Salt Mine

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Louisiana, Iberia Parish, near New Iberia
Salt evaporated from brine springs on Avery Island since 1791. On May 4, 1862, workmen enlarging these springs to produce more salt for the Confederacy hit solid salt at a depth of 16 feet. Mining operations, the first of this type in North America, were begun and continued until destruction of the salt works on April 17, 1863 by Union forces.

(Industry & Commerce • War, US Civil) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Early Harbor

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California, Alameda County, Oakland

Creating the Cove

The transformation of the estuary from industrial harbor to recreational waterway is a major trend in Oakland’s history. The change began at this spot. The Oakland Municipal Yacht Harbor – the city’s first public marina – opened here in 1930. Developed by the Port of Oakland, the marina adjoined the moorage of the Oakland Yacht Club, founded in 1913 with Jack London as one of its early members. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Port redeveloped the shoreline of Brooklyn Basin as Embarcadero Cove, a linked series of marinas that included the one in front of you.
The Port’s Embarcadero Cove project borrowed its name from a private development several hundred yards east of here. Opened in 1970, old Embarcadero Cove is notable for its collection of historic buildings which were moved to the site from elsewhere in the city and adapted to new uses. These include the Southern Pacific’s East Oakland station, several Victorian houses, and Oakland’s turn-of-the-century harbor lighthouse, which was brought by barge from West Oakland. The photograph depicts the lighthouse keeper’s wife on the veranda.

Pipe City
During the Great Depression, in the winter of 1932-33, around 200 unemployed men lived here. The men made their homes in large concrete pipes in the storage yard of the American Concrete and Steel Pipe Company. Their community attracted widespread attention and was one of the inspirations for the novel Co-op by Upton Sinclair.
Pipe City elected its own mayor. A volunteer police force kept the peace. Drunkenness, uncleanliness, and political soapboxing were punishable by eviction. Cash from odd jobs and donations of food and clothing were shared equally among the men, who in turn helped needy families. Also known as Miseryville, due to the physical hardships, Pipe City disbanded early in the spring of 1933, when buyers were found for the concrete pipe. “There'll be no hunger marching”, vowed Pipe City Mayor Dutch Jensen at the time. “Now warm weather’s coming, and we’ll be on our way.”

(Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

200th Anniversary of James W. Marshall's Birth

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California, El Dorado County, Coloma
On the occasion of James W. Marshall's 200th birthday, the Native Sons of the Golden West rededicate this monument erected in his honor. Born in Hopewell Township, Mercer County, New Jersey to Phillip and Sarah Wilson Marshall on October 8, 1810, he was the oldest of four children and the only male. He arrived in California via Oregon in 1845 where he worked for John Sutter before acquiring a small cattle ranch. In 1846 he served with John C. Fremont during the Bear Flag Revolt. Marshall partnered with Sutter to construct a sawmill where he made the discovery that would cause the cry of "GOLD" to reverberate around the world.

After his discovery of gold in 1848 Marshall found some success operating a ferry, hotel and a vineyard but by the 1860s fell on hard times and relocated to Kelsey. At the time of his death August 10th, 1885 Marshall was penniless, living in a small cabin. His body was brought to Coloma for burial. Immediately thereafter, Placerville Parlor #9 of the Native Sons of the Golden West in 1887 successfully advocated for the construction of the monument you see here today, the first such monument erected in California. Re-dedicated October 8, 2010
By Grand Parlor
Native Sons of the Golden West
James L. Shadle, Grand President

(Notable Persons) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Evolution of a skyline

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California, Los Angeles County, Long Beach
In the early 1990s, Long Beach was world-famous as a visitor destination. Hotels and dance halls, trolleys and roller coasters lured tourist to the city. The mild climate and pristine beaches beckoned people to the water's edge. With daily train service on the Southern Pacific Railroad and seven miles of beach "wide enough to drive twenty teams abreast", Long Beach was called the finest location in southern California for "heath, pleasure and profit". Today, as the City reflects on its past, it is actively planning for the sustainable future.

Although Long Beach's skyline has changed, a shadow of its history remains. Office buildings and modern hotels have replaced pavilions and bandstands of yesterday. Traces of its past, though, can still be seen by those who look carefully.

(Natural Features • Notable Buildings) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Santa Fe Plaza

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New Mexico, Santa Fe County, Santa Fe
Has been designated a
National Historic
Landmark

The heart of Santa Fe since its founding by Spanish colonial Governor Don Pedro De Peralta in 1609-1610, this public space was a terminus of El Camino Real and the Santa Fe Trail. This site possesses national significance in commemorating the history of the United States of America.

(Roads & Vehicles • Settlements & Settlers) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Cryer & Sons

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California, Alameda County, Oakland
In operation on the Oakland waterfront from 1907 to 1989, Cryer was one of the best-known builders of small boats in the Bay Area. Founded in San Francisco in the 1890s by English-born William Cryer, the yard was later taken over by his son William James Cryer, and finally his grandsons William J, Cryer III and Robert R. Cryer. Originally William Cryer & Son, later W.J. Cryer & Sons, the yard occupied two sites on Brooklyn Basin – at 11th Avenue (1907-1912) and Dennison Street (1912-1989) – initially leasing buildings from the adjacent plants of Atlas Gas Engine Company and Standard Gas Engine Company, which installed most engines on Cryer-built boats. Cryer built and repaired small wooden powerboats, making the transition to the repair of steel-hulled cutters in the 1960s.

A dozen or so employees, including welders, carpenters, and painters, worked on a wide variety of vessels, typically from 30 feet to 80 feet in length, from sturdy workboats for bay and river hauling to ocean-going yachts. The largest vessel ever built at the yard was the 130-ft. yacht of Oakland automaker R. Clifford Durant. A palatial cruiser with five staterooms and a crew of seven, the Black Swan had a range of 7,000 miles, making her maiden voyage to Hawaii in 1922. Cryer built over 40 launches and cannery tenders for the Alaska Packers Association. Oakland-based Thomas Crowley utilized Cryer-built launches and tugboats for his ship-to-shore transport and towing services. Other craft turned out by the yard included riverboats for freight and passengers, police patrol boats, and trawlers.

During World War II, when the number of employees exceeded 100, Cryer built four APC coastal transports for the Navy. Equipped with Atlas engines, the 103-ft. craft saw action in the Pacific carrying troops and cargo. Most of Cryer’s postwar work involved repairs to Coast Guard cutters berthed at nearby Coast Guard Island. The 1912 boat building, wharf, and marine railway at this site comprise the last remnants of Oakland’s shipbuilding heritage.

(Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

In Their Honor

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California, Los Angeles County, Long Beach
The Long Beach Navy Memorial pays tribute to the city naval heritage Long Beach's naval history dates back to 1908 with the arrival of President Theodore Roosevelt's 16-ship Great White Fleet. By the 1920s Long Beach established itself as a major naval installation on the West Coast. For the next eight decades, it was home to sailors and shipbuilders, battleships and aircraft carriers. The navy permeated every aspect of life in Long Beach.

In 1997, Long Beach's last chapter in navy history came to a close. The once bustling shipyard and naval base are now gone, but the city's naval heritage remains.

Side B:
Charting an Ancient Journey Forged in steel, bronze, brass, and porcelain enamel, the Navysphere sculpture memorializes Long Beach's naval heritage. Its design is based on the armillary sphere, an ancient Greek model of the Earth-the central sphere-and a stand that depicts the equator, the constellations of the Zodiac, and movement of the moon, planets, and sun.

In creating the sculpture, artist Terry Braunstein chose the armillary sphere as a metaphor. In ancient times, its use as a navigational tool made a navy possible. And like the naval heritage of Long Beach, it remains a timeless symbol.

Of Mast and Men
The Navysphere's photographs of celebrations and daily activities capture the personal side of navy life. While generations of men and women gave 90 years of service, they also dedicated themselves to their families and friends.

Icons from a Navy Past
Artifacts celebrate the Long Beach Naval Station and shipyard. From an anchor that once moored a ship from Theodore Roosevelt's Great White Fleet and flag mast from the Long Beach Navy Hospital (circa 1942) to the replica of the compass rose from the Naval Station Administration Building and streets signs that once marked a shipyard intersection, Long Beach's naval heritage is preserved in art and architecture.

(Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 10 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

The Coast Range: an ecological meeting place

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California, San Benito County, Paicines
Ecology is all about how all things around us interact and affect each other, from rocks to plants to animals. Here is a place rich with different ecological interactions. How many can you see?

Millions of years ago, most of California was under the ocean. Then the Pacific plate collided with the North American plate and was forced beneath it...

Rock from the bottom of the sea was scraped up into a jumbled pile: from shale and sandstone that had formed from layers of sediments settling slowly over time, to deep oceanic crust which became serpentine.

Pressure along the San Andreas fault slowly pushed the chaotic mix of rocks above the ocean surface, creating the Coast Range we see today...

rocks that weathered to different soils where different plants can grow...

on mountains high and dry, and in valleys where rivers flow.

Soils formed from serpentine are challenging to plant life: low in nutrients and high in metals. Few plants are able to grow there. You can see serpentine barrens from here as gray, treeless patches on the mountains. But all around them, sedimentary soils support dense stands of pine, oak woodland and chaparral.

Water plays another vital role in the ecosystem, with a dramatic effect on both plants and animals. Willows and cottonwoods grow close to the river bank. Grassy oak woodland thrives in the moist valley bottoms, giving way to chaparral on dry, well-drained hillsides.

(Natural Features) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Water & Rails / Brooklyn Basin

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California, Alameda County, Oakland
There are two plaques, mounted back-to-back, on the same support for this marker. Water & Rails Rancho Heritage
Under Spanish and Mexican rule, much of the East Bay, including all of present-day Oakland, lay within the boundaries of Rancho San Antonio. Granted in 1820 to Luis Maria Peralta, this 45,000 acre cattle ranch was one of the largest ranchos on San Francisco Bay.

The Peraltas shipped out cattle hides and tallow from the Embarcadero de San Antonio, a small boat landing located near this spot at the foot of present day 14th Avenue. These products were sold to British and American traders who sailed around Cape Horn. The hides wee used to make shoes and saddles, and the tallow was turned into candles and soap. Look across the freeway to the bluffs that form the original shoreline – sight of the embarcadero.

During the Gold Rush (1848 – 1854), two pioneer settlements, San Antonio and Clinton, were established on the cove. The thriving lumber village of San Antonio grew up around the old embarcadero. In the nearby hills were groves of giant redwoods, some of which were large enough to be seen by vessels entering the Golden Gate. By 1860, these trees had all been logged, providing lumber for the new towns and cities around the bay.

Transportation
Following the arrival of the railroad in 1869, the shoreline of Brooklyn Basin became an industrial district. By World War I, lumber yards, boat yards, and factories lined the shore. The railroad tracks were built on filled land bordering the original shoreline bluffs. The palm tree marks the site of Southern Pacific’s East Oakland station (shown above). The building has been moved to old Embarcadero cove, a half mile east of here.

The East Shore Freeway, now the Nimitz Freeway, was built shortly after World War II. It was the East Bay’s first major highway. The view above shows the freeway in the 1950s. The Port of Oakland built a new roadway, the Embarcadero, to improve access between the freeway and the harbor. This is the road you are now on. Brooklyn Basin
The Changing Waterfront

Comprising about a mile of shoreline, this crescent-shaped cove was the site of the East Bay’s earliest maritime activity. By the 1830s, cattle hides and tallow were being shipped from a nearby landing. During the Gold Rush of the late 1840s and early 1850s, redwood from the hills was exported. By 1870s, the area formed part of the town of Brooklyn, now East Oakland.

The broad expanse of water extending out from the cove was originally the widest section of the Oakland Estuary. It soon acquired the name Brooklyn Basin. Once a shallow-water area adjoined by marshland, the basin has been deepened by dredging projects since the 1870s. Shipping channels border the Oakland and Alameda shores.

The maps above show how the landscape has changed. On the left-hand map (1857), the marsh-fringed basin has an irregular shoreline with few buildings. The second map (1929), with its urban grid of streets, shows the effect of a half-century of harbor work – a shoreline modified by industrial use, a canal separating Alameda and Oakland, and an island in Brooklyn Basin.

Coast Guard Island
Originally known as Government Island, Coast Guard Island is just across the water from this site. Covering about 70 acres, the island was created in 1915-17 by depositing dredged materials behind levees. The site of a World War I shipyard, it has served as a Coast Guard base since World War II. Evidence of sunken wooden ships has been found in the mud around the island – remnants of the time when these protected waters served as a winter moorage for sailing vessels and a “graveyard” for square-riggers. The areal view shows the island around 1920, with sailings ships clustered at its tip.

(Settlements & Settlers • Waterways & Vessels) Includes location, directions, 3 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

World War II Memorial

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California, Los Angeles County, San Pedro
This exhibit made possible by the following firms and individuals. Propeller donated by the State of California Dept of Education, Pedestal design Robert Blank, Structural Engineering Moffatt & Nichol-Pedestal Steel from Todd Pacific Shipyards Corp. Pedestal Fabricated, Machined Assembled and Painted by Southwest Marine, Inc-Proeller, Polished by Pacific Marine Propellar-Sealer by Internantiol, Paint-Storeg, Transportation and services by Nationa Metal & Stell Corp.-Site Foundation Los angeles Dept of Recreation and parks-Crane, Rigging and Installing Metropolitan Stlvedore Co. Project Coordinator I Roy Coats Dedicated 7th December 1986 Tom bradley Mayor Georgiann Rudder Ass't Gen'L.MCR., Pacific Region Dep't of Recreation and Parks Joan M. Flores Councilwoman, 15th Dist. City of Los Angeles

(War, World II) Includes location, directions, 4 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Armed Forces Tribute

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Alabama, Chambers County, Valley
A Tribute
to the men
of our
community
who have
served in
the Armed
Forces for
our country

Lest We Forget

(War, Korean • War, Vietnam • War, World I • War, World II) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.

Langdale Veterans Memorial

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Alabama, Chambers County, Valley

In Honor of All Langdale Veterans

World War II


To those who gave
the ultimate sacrifice

(War, Afghanistan • War, Korean • War, Vietnam • War, World II) Includes location, directions, 5 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
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