Alabama Summer Camps

History

Spanish explorers are believed to have arrived at Mobile Bay in 1519, and the territory was visited in 1540 by the explorer Hernando de Soto. The first permanent European settlement in Alabama was founded by the French at Fort Louis de la Mobile in 1702. The British gained control of the area in 1763 by the Treaty of Paris but had to cede almost all the Alabama region to the U.S. and Spain after the American Revolution. The Confederacy was founded at Montgomery in Feb. 1861, and, for a time, the city was the Confederate capital.

Facts

State symbols: flower camellia (1959); bird yellowhammer (1927); song “Alabama” (1931); tree Southern longleaf pine (1949, 1997).
Nickname: Yellowhammer State
Origin of name: From Alabama River by early European explorers and named "Alibamu" after the local Indian tribe

Statistics

10 largest cities (2005 est.): Birmingham, 231,483; Montgomery, 200,127; Mobile, 191,544; Huntsville, 166,313; Tuscaloosa, 81,358; Hoover, 67,469; Dothan, 62,713; Decatur, 54,909; Auburn, 49,928; Gadsden, 37,405. Land area: 50,744 sq mi. (131,427 sq km). Geographic center: In Chilton Co., 12 mi. SW of Clanton. Number of counties: 67. Largest county by population and area: Jefferson, 657,229 (2005); Baldwin, 1,596 sq mi. Residents: Alabamian, Alabaman. 2005 resident population est.: 4,557,808

Alabama Summer Camps