Off the Beaten Path Tours
PLANTATIONS OF CAMDEN
Town and Country
8:00am – 6:00p.m.
Members of the Wilcox County Historical Society will plan and host this very special show-and-tell tour. We’ll learn the history of Camden and of the families who built the area’s architecturally important homes. Also tour a number of private homes whose owners who will open their doors just for us. Lunch will be prepared and served to us at GainesRidge, the antebellum home owned by the family for whom Fort Gaines on Mobile Bay is named. After dessert, we’ll stop by Black Belt Treasures, whose mission is to promote and sell regional art and fine crafts from over 250 artisans.
MORE INFORMATION:
» www.wilcoxareachamber.org
» GainesRidge
» www.blackbelttreasures.com
GEE’S BEND EXPERIENCE
The women and their quilts
8:00a.m. – 6:00p.m.
The road to Gee’s Bend winds through farmland to an isolated peninsula surrounded on three sides by the Alabama River. Generations of women living there have created quilts from whatever materials were available, using patterns of their own design. Colorful quilts that once kept families warm now hang in the world’s great museums. These friendly women invite us in to watch as they piece their quilts while telling stories and singing songs. We will visit the Quilter’s Collective and Freedom Quilting Bee. Items for purchase range from quilts to potholders. A private party lunch will follow.
MORE INFORMATION:
» www.quiltsofgeesbend.com
HISTORIC ST. STEPHENS, JACKSON AND GROVE HILL
9:00a.m. – 5:00p.m.
Spend the day taking tours with local historians. The visit begins at old St. Stephens (c. 1804), Alabama’s first territorial capital. From its beginning in the 1790s to its decline in 1820, St. Stephens was the site of a Spanish fort, an American fort and trading post, and the Alabama Territorial capitol. The University of South Alabama Center for Archaeological Studies and the Alabama Museum of Natural History Summer Expedition Program have ongoing digs that will shed new light on the people who lived and died there. A private party lunch will follow in Jackson at the Kimbell House (c. 1848) of classic Southern-style cooking by Doshia’s Flowers and Catering. The tour continues on to Grove Hill and the Clarke County Historical Museum.
MORE INFORMATION:
» www.oldststephens.com
» www.clarkemuseum.com
DEFUNIAK SPRINGS FLORIDA
Early home to the New York Chautauqua 8:30a.m. -5:30p.m.
This 1882 town of 7,000 is situated by one of the world’s only two naturally round lakes (the other is outside of Zurich). Magnificent Victorian homes circle the lake, and 250 town structures are listed on the National Register. In 1885 DeFuniak Springs was chosen to be the winter home for the New York Chautauqua. Dennis Ray, a friendly gent, will board our bus and share marvelous stories of “his” town. After a special stop at the Little Big Store, a general mercantile in the Historic District, we will enjoy a casual lunch buffet at McLain’s, a very popular place.
MORE INFORMATION:
» www.defuniakspringsflorida.net/history.htm
OTHER FAVORITES
Demopolis
Eutaw
Old Federal Road
Foley Railroad Museum
Louisiana North Shore
Monroeville