Thursday, November 10 we drove down to Orange Beach, Alabama, a 33 mile drive one way. We did not even get to see the beach as we went to the Indian & Sea Museum, then a small inland beach called Orange Beach Waterfront Park. This was not much of a beach as there was construction there. It looks like they were installing a new pier out to a gazebo. It was getting chilly so we decided not to stay. We took a longer way back because coming down we paid $2.75 just to cross a bridge into Orange Beach.
The museum is actually the old school house that was built in 1910. It is now over 100 years old and still standing strong. It is the only original house structure still standing on the island. The museum was established in 1995 for the preservation of local history, Indian culture, and the local fishing industry.
By the early 1900s, when residents of the small community made a living from fishing the gulf and bays as well as growing some small farm crops, it was determined that a school was needed for the area children. In 1910, James Callaway hauled lumber from a mill in northwest Florida on his schooner to construct a building that would serve as a church and school. At that time Orange Beach was a remote barrier island. People still traveled by horse and buggy and it took a day and a half to go from one end of the island to the other. There were little two-rut roads where the ruts were so deep that you didn't have to steer the horse and buggy through them.
During the years that the Orange Beach school was open, the biggest challenge was keeping teachers. Most of them got married after short periods of teaching, and the early 1900s was an era when most women were expected to quit work when they got married. The school provided instruction for grades one through seven with as many as 30 children attending at a time.
In 1920, automobiles came to the island and the roads were greatly improved. At that time they bought a bus to transport the children to the school in Foley, and the old school house in Orange Beach was closed. It wasn't until 1997 that an elementary school was built in Orange Beach having an enrollment of about 300 children.
The school house was used as a storage building for many years; suffered significant damage during in 1979 when Hurricane Frederic struck the area. Then in 1985 the City of Orange Beach acquired the building, repaired it and eventually opened it as a museum. In 1998, it was moved to the location where it now sits and was told they should not move it anymore because it's already been moved twice so far.
 |
| Teacher's Desk, circa 1910 |
Grand opening of the Orange Beach Elementary School constructed in 1910. Due to weather conditions, school sessions only lasted two to three months a year. During the summer months school was normally dismissed before noon because of the heat.
 |
| 1930 Seat |
 |
| River Otter |
 |
| Seminole Indian Canoe Dugout |
This canoe dates back to the days of Christopher Columbus and is more than 500 years old. It measures 27 feet 3 inches, by 19 inches and weighs about 1,000 pounds. It is cypress wood and was made by burning the wood to ash, then scraping it out. It was discovered in northeast Florida and has been on loan from the University of Florida since 1993.
The tribes that were once in this area were the Mississippian tribes of the Choctaw and the Creek.
 |
| Pictograph |
Before 1800 Indians made drawings to tell a story. The Stone spirit man is an excellent example. Later Indians became artistic in colors painted on horses, riders and teepees. The gourd is an excellent example of northwest art carried over to Totem and Canoe.
 |
| Petrified wood |
 |
| Petrified cypress knee |
How long does it take trees to turn to petrified wood? Petrified wood forms when fallen trees get washed down a river and buried under layers of mud, ash from volcanoes and other materials. Sealed beneath this muck deprives the rotting wood from oxygen -- the necessary ingredient for decay. As the wood's organic tissues slowly break down, the resulting voids in the trees are filled with minerals such as silica -- the stuff of rocks. Over millions of years, these minerals crystallize within the wood's cellular structure forming the stone-like material known as petrified wood.
During Noah's flood, conditions would have been highly favorable for rapid petrification. Entire forests ripped apart, felled trees transported by raging floodwaters, significant volcanic activity, large amounts of mineral rich water (Genesis 7:11) and rapid burial by layers of wet sediment would have been a direct result of the year-long global Flood. There is hard scientific data that supports the biblical account. If wood can turn to stone in ten years or less, then the rocks and fossils we find in the sedimentary strata could have easily formed in Noah's Flood and the 4,500 years since.
 |
| Quartz - All points are angled at 120 degrees Formed by nature |
 |
| Amonite - could be about 4,000 years old |
 |
| Sea Turtle Shell |
 |
| Horseshoe (King) Crab |
The horseshoe crab is not really a crab but a descendant of ancient Eurypterids. These awkward animals are found along Atlantic beaches where they may be very common. None occur along the west coast. Though bathers are sometimes frightened by them, horseshoe crabs are harmless, despite their dangerous-looking spikelike tail. The female is larger than the male. Eggs are deposited in sand close to shore. The young at first look like miniature adults without tails. They live in deeper water, molting periodically as they grow.
 |
| Casting of a dinosaur print found in North Carolina |
 |
| Pink Conch |
This large Caribbean conch shell has been a long time favorite ornament. Conch chowder and steak come from this species, and its shell is used as a trumpet. The young "rollers" do not have the flaring, thick lip of the 12" adults. Semi-precious pink pearls have been found inside the shells. The animal feeds on delicate algae. Also called a Queen Conch.
 |
| 1944 Marine Sextant |
Before the GPS, the sextant was the most important marine navigation instrument available to the mariner to find the ships location. The sextant is still used today by many mariners.
How Orange Beach got its name. Orange Beach had been aptly named for hundreds of years, although it did not become a city until 1984. Up until the 1920s, Orange Beach was home to native grown citrus crops. Though due to some hard winter freezes and a tree disease called "blight," many of the crops had been destroyed. In fact, soldiers at Ft. Morgan would take the 60 mile round trip on horseback to gather the citrus and take it back to the fort. The city has kept the name since then.
No comments:
Post a Comment