Historical marker tells of Bartram's passage through Southwest Alabama

'Bartram's Trail' historical marker at Stockton, Ala. 

This week’s featured historical marker is the “BARTRAM’S TRAIL” marker in Baldwin County, Ala. This marker is located on the east side of State Highway 59 at Stockton.

This marker was erected by the Baldwin County Commission and the Alabama Bicentennial Commission. There’s text on both sides of this marker, but both sides are identical. What follows in the complete text from the marker:

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“BATRAM’S TRAIL: William Bartram, America’s first native born artist-naturalist, passed through Baldwin County during the Revolutionary era, making the first scientific notations of its flora, fauna and inhabitants. As the appointed botanist of Britain’s King George III, he traveled 2,400 miles in three journeys into the southern colonies in 1775-1776, collecting rare plants and specimens and making detailed drawings of plants and animals.”

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According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama, one leg of Bartram’s journeys took him down an ancient Indian path that would later become the Federal Road, and he “passed through Alabama's present-day Russell and Macon counties to the future site of Montgomery and then turned southwest through what are Bartram Biodiversity Scenenow Lowndes, Butler, Conecuh, Escambia, and Baldwin counties. Bartram reached Mobile in July 1775 and sailed up the Tensaw and Tombigbee rivers on a route now called the Bartram Canoe Trail.”

Even though it’s not mentioned in the Encyclopedia of Alabama article, I’d also add Monroe County to the list of places Bartram passed through during his trip through present day Southwest Alabama. The path of the Old Federal Road, as it is known today, makes up the present border between Conecuh and Monroe counties, so it would be hard to say that he passed through Conecuh County without saying that he also passed through a portion of Monroe County.

Map of Bartram's route in Ala.

The Web site, www.bartramtrail.org, does say that Bartram’s route took him “down the present county line between Conecuh and Monroe counties. The Federal road of 1805 branched about Burnt Corn Springs and the main highway crossed the Alabama River at Fort Claiborne, but, as Bartram was on his way to Mobile, he must have followed the left fork to cross Little River at about the same place our present road does (Mount Pleasant) and on south by Tensaw. Bartram continued his trip from here by water, going by boat down the Mobile River.”

For years I’ve wanted to read Bartram’s 1791 book, “Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws. Containing an Account of the Soil and Natural Productions of Those Regions; Together with Observations on the Manners of the Indians.” Commonly known by its much shorter title, “Bartram’s Travels,” this book details his travels in early America and his many encounters with the country’s early Indian inhabitants. (If you've got a copy, please let me know. I'd like to borrow it!)

In the end, visit this site next Wednesday to learn about another historical marker. I’m also taking suggestions from the reading audience, so if you know of an interesting historical marker that you’d like me to feature, let me know in the comments section below.