USA - Alabama - Mapcard (2)

Retro-style state map postcard - adapted from  classic 1950's greetings card.

Sent by Wyatt from Alabama, USA.

My other Alabama's mapcard is here.

USA - Alabama - U.S. Space and Rocket Center

Huntsville, Alabama.

U.S. Space and Rocket Center.

Sent by Edgar from Alabama, USA.

The U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama is a museum operated by the government of Alabama, showcasing rockets, achievements, and artifacts of the U.S. space program. Sometimes billed as "Earth's largest space museum", astronaut Owen Garriott described the place as, "a great way to learn about space in a town that has embraced the space program from the very beginning."

The center opened in 1970, just after the Apollo 12 Moon landing, the second crewed mission to the lunar surface. It showcases Apollo Program hardware, including the Apollo 16 capsule, and also houses interactive science exhibits, Space Shuttle exhibits, and Army rocketry and aircraft. With more than 1,500 permanent rocketry and space exploration artifacts, as well as many rotating rocketry and space-related exhibits, the center occupies land carved out of Redstone Arsenal adjacent to Huntsville Botanical Garden at exit 15 on Interstate 565. The center offers bus tours of nearby NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

Two camp programs offer visitors the opportunity to stay on the grounds to learn more about spaceflight and aviation. U.S. Space Camp gives an in-depth exposure to the space program through participant use of simulators, lectures, and training exercises. Aviation Challenge offers a taste of military fighter pilot training, including simulations, lectures, and survival exercises. Both camps provide residential and day camp educational programs for children and adults (read more).

USA - Alabama - State Bird

SCIENTIFIC NAME:  Colaptes auratus
OTHER NAMES:  Yellow-shafted flicker, red-shafted flicker, common flicker.

STATUS:  Breeder. Fairly common to uncommon in all seasons and regions. Designated the offical state bird by the Alabama Legislature. MODERATE CONSERVATION CONCERN.

Sent by Michelle from Dallas in Texas, USA.

The northern flicker or common flicker (Colaptes auratus) is a medium-sized bird of the woodpecker family. It is native to most of North America, parts of Central America, Cuba, and the Cayman Islands, and is one of the few woodpecker species that migrate. Over 100 common names for the northern flicker are known, including yellowhammer (not to be confused with the Eurasian yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella)), clape, gaffer woodpecker, harry-wicket, heigh-ho, wake-up, walk-up, wick-up, yarrup, and gawker bird. Many of these names derive from attempts to imitate some of its calls. It is the state bird of Alabama (known by its colloquial name "yellowhammer") (read more)

U.S.A. - Alabama - State Capitol

ALABAMA STATE CAPITOL AT NIGHT
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA

Sent by Kel & Kylee from Montgomery, USA.

The Alabama State Capitol, listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the First Confederate Capitol, is the state capitol building for Alabama. It is located on Capitol Hill, originally Goat Hill, in Montgomery. It was declared a National Historic Landmark on December 19, 1960.

Alabama has had five political capitals during its history. The first was the territorial capital in St. Stephens in 1817, followed by the state convention in Huntsville in 1819, then the first "permanent" capital in Cahaba in 1820. It was then moved to Tuscaloosa in 1826, until coming to rest in Montgomery in 1846. The current structure is the state's fourth purpose-built capitol building, with the first at Cahaba, the second at Tuscaloosa, and the last two in Montgomery. The first capitol building in Montgomery, located where the current building stands, burned after only two years. The current building was completed in 1851, although additional wings were added over the course of the following 140 years. (read further)

U.S.A. - Alabama

Greetings From Alabama.

Sent by Kel & Kylee from Montgomery, USA.

Alabama (/ˌæləˈbæmə/) is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th-most extensive and the 23rd-most populous of the 50 United States. At 1,300 miles (2,100 km), Alabama has one of the longest navigable inland waterways in the nation.

From the American Civil War until World War II, Alabama, like many Southern states, suffered economic hardship, in part because of continued dependence on agriculture. Despite the growth of major industries and urban centers, White rural interests dominated the state legislature until the 1960s, while urban interests and African Americans were under-represented. African Americans and poor whites were essentially disfranchised in 1901, a status that continued until after 1965. (read further)

U.S.A. - Alabama - Mapcard (1)

ALABAMA
The Cotton State

Sent by Lee from Montgomer, Alabama, USA.

USA - Alabama - Mobile

Aerial view of Mobile, Alabama.
Mobile is on the west side of Mobila River. The city's river channel, only 10 feet deep in 1826, has been dredged over the years to accomodate oceangoing vessels.

Sent by Sallie, a Swap-Bot partner from Alabama.

This is from Wikipedia : Mobile (pronounced /moʊˈbiːl/ moh-BEEL) is the third most populous city in the Southern US state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 198,915 during the 2000 census. It is the largest municipality on the Gulf Coast between New Orleans, Louisiana and St. Petersburg, Florida. Mobile is the principal municipality of the Mobile Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), a region of 411,721 residents which is composed solely of Mobile County and is the second largest MSA in the state. Mobile is included in the Mobile-Daphne-Fairhope Combined Statistical Area with a total population of 591,599 the second largest combined statistical area in the state behind Birmingham.

Mobile began as the first capital of colonial French Louisiana in 1702. The city gained its name from the Native American Mobilian tribe that the French colonists found in the area of Mobile Bay. During its first 100 years, Mobile was a colony for France, then Britain, and lastly Spain. Mobile first became a part of the United States of America in 1810, with the annexation of West Florida under President James Madison. It then left that union in 1861 when Alabama joined the Confederate States of America, which collapsed in 1865.

Located at the junction of the Mobile River and Mobile Bay on the northern Gulf of Mexico, the city is the only seaport in Alabama. The Port of Mobile has always played a key role in the economic health of the city beginning with the city as a key trading center between the French and Native Americans down to its current role as the 9th-largest port in the United States.

As one of the Gulf Coast's cultural centers, Mobile houses several art museums, a symphony orchestra, a professional opera, a professional ballet company, and a large concentration of historic architecture. Mobile is known for having the oldest organized carnival celebrations in the United States, dating to the 18th century of its early colonial period. It was also host to the first formally organized Carnival mystic society or "krewe" in the United States, dating to 1830. People from Mobile are known as Mobilians.

USA - Alabama - Monte Sano State Park

Monte Sano State Park
Huntsville, Alabama.

Facts : Monte Sano, Spanish for "Mountain of Health." Rising 1600 feet above sea level, the mountain has been attracting travelers and settlers since the 1820s when the town of Viduta (derived from the Spanish word "vide" meaning life) was established as a health colony. The nationally acclaimed 233-room resort hotel Monte Sano was opened June 1, 1887 and closed 1900 when the economy nose dived. In 1933 a portion of the mountain was chosen as a park site, and logs and stones from Monte Sano were used by the Civilian Conservation Corps to construct many of the cabins, pavilions, and trails. The park is 2000 acres with a panoramic view of the Tennessee Valley.

Sent by Terri, a partner in Swap-Bot from Alabama, USA.

USA - Alabama - State Flower (2)

The Camellia Japonica is extremely beautiful in the Deep South. Sent by Sallie, a partner in Swap-Bot who lives in Mobile, Alabama.

This is from Wikipedia : The Japanese Camellia (Camellia japonica) is one of the best known species of Camellia. It is a member of the Theaceae family or tea family. It is a flowering shrub or a small tree native to Japan, Korea and China. It is also the official state flower of Alabama. It is also called the “rose of winter.”

USA - Alabama - State Flower (1)

Sent by Terri of Alabama, USA. This is from PC SWAP FOR EVERYBODY at Swap-Bot.

She wrote : "... I am in search and rescue volunteer with my German Shepherd dog, Brandi".