You would be hard-pressed to find a more historic stretch of the Alabama River than the six-mile length of the river that flows between the Claiborne Lock & Dam and the U.S. Highway 84 bridge at Claiborne.
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| Claiborne-Murphy Bridge |
I recently got the chance to accompany John Higginbotham of
Franklin and his son, Pearson, on a memorable kayak trip down the river between
the dam and the bridge. John and Pearson, two of Monroe County’s foremost
kayakers, had made this kayak trip before, and they were more than a little
familiar with this part of the river. For me, this was the first time that I’d
ever traveled down this part of a river in anything other than a fishing boat
with an outboard motor.
According to the official flood gauge, the river was at 14.1
feet when we put our kayaks in the water at the landing just south of the dam.
It was a few minutes after 9 a.m., and the temperature was in the seventies. In
other words, it was an ideal morning for a paddling trip down the river.
As we left the modern concrete and steel dam in our wake, I
was reminded that we were traveling down the river in much the same manner as
the ancient Indians did for thousands of years before the arrival of European
explorers. Long before Alabama became a state, Indians paddled up and down the
river in canoes made from natural materials collected near their villages. One
is left to wonder what they would think of today’s mass-produced, hard-plastic
kayaks.
We eventually drifted by the powerhouse at the pulp mill,
and I was again reminded of how much this stretch of river has changed over the
years. Gone are important landing sites like Lisbon Landing, Barefield Landing,
Talberts Landing and others. Unless you know where to look, these places are now
nothing more than forgotten locations on old historical maps.
Our trip down the river also took us past the mouths of Big
Flat Creek and Limestone Creek. Large ancient Indian villages were said to have
been located at both of these sites. In fact, sources say that near the point
where Limestone Creek flows into the Alabama River, there is a prehistoric,
manmade earthen mound that measures about 100 by 40 feet, with a height of 18
feet. Others say that the land between the mouths of these two creeks was
considered a “holy ground” by the Indians who lived in this area centuries ago.
On the day of our trip, there was very little boat traffic,
and my mind turned to thoughts of the days when old-timey steamboats once plied
the river’s waters between Mobile and Montgomery. Steamboat accidents were
common during those times, and a number of these riverboats wrecked and sank in
and around Claiborne. Perhaps the best known of these was the Henderson, a
123-ton steamer that sank in April 1825 with a cargo load of whisky, brandy and
wine. In the days before river dredging, old-timers told of being able to see the
Henderson’s wreckage when the river was low during severe droughts.
As we continued our trip, the Claiborne-Murphy Bridge came
into sight, stretching across the river from the high bluff at Claiborne. For
many years, the only way to cross the river at Claiborne was by ferry, and it
wasn’t until the 1930s that a bridge was built across the river at this point.
Space doesn’t allow for all the tales that have been told about this location,
which at times was the home of another large Indian village, where sources say
that DeSoto crossed the river in 1540, where the U.S. Army built a fort in the early
1800s and where the bustling city of Claiborne once stood.
In the end, it took us about an hour and a half to reach Claiborne Landing, just north of the bridge. Thanks to my trusty guides, this was a fun trip that I would recommend to anyone with an interest in kayaking or canoeing. As with all such water activities, use common sense and wear a life jacket so that you can safely enjoy all of the history that this six-mile stretch of the Alabama River has to offer.
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