Exploring History

09/17/2025

Welcome to Alabama’s OG spa getaway—where you could sip sulphur water, get fancy with four meats at dinner, and sweat it all out dancing under a pavilion. The Alabama White Sulphur Springs Resort wasn’t just about healing your gout—it was about doing it with class.

Tucked between Lookout Mountain and Wills Valley, this was the 19th-century version of an all-inclusive resort… minus the WiFi, but definitely plus the questionable ‘medicinal’ water and a ‘charming’ bathhouse. You had kids being sent off to behave (allegedly), grown-ups playing lawn croquet, and more than one guest risking the phrase ‘I came for the sulphur, stayed for the scandal.’

It later became a YMCA camp, but even the campers knew it had that ‘haunted hotel chic’ charm. So next time you're stuck in traffic or sipping some overpriced kombucha, just remember—we used to cure everything with sulphur water and square dancing."

09/17/2025

🎥 Exploring History Update 🎥

We’ve been making some big changes — upgraded our look, tightened our storytelling, and little by little, we’re finding our voice.

This channel is growing because of YOU. Every watch, like, share, and comment helps us keep uncovering Southern secrets, forgotten histories, and mysteries that shaped our world.

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09/17/2025

Sometimes the most powerful stories are hidden in the places time forgot.
This abandoned chapel in Clay, Alabama—once part of a state-run girls’ school—still stands, scarred by tornado damage but full of echoes from the past. 🕊️

Walking through these ruins, you can almost feel the weight of history pressing in—stories of resilience, tragedy, and lives lived in the shadows. It’s a reminder that history isn’t always found in polished museums… sometimes it’s out here, in the forgotten corners.

Every adventure like this fuels our mission to uncover the hidden layers of Alabama’s past—and share them with all of you.

What do you think—should places like this be restored, or left as they are to tell their story?

09/17/2025

📸 Charles Tyree: From Slavery to Sergeant

Born enslaved in Tennessee in 1845, Charles Tyree defied the odds. He enlisted in the U.S. Army on December 1, 1863, joining the 14th U.S. Colored Troops, and fought bravely in the Battle of Decatur (Oct. 26–29, 1864). Wounded in action, Tyree was later promoted to sergeant in 1865 — just after the war ended. He spent the rest of his life in Indianapolis, passing in 1923.

Before 1863, African Americans were barred from military service. But after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, more than 178,000 Black men would wear the Union blue — many escaping slavery to do so.

In Alabama alone, over 7,000 African American soldiers joined the fight across six regiments, many of them once enslaved. They served in units like the 106th, 110th, and 111th U.S. Colored Infantry, seeing combat at Athens, AL, and Fort Pillow, where some paid the ultimate price.

Despite receiving lower pay and menial duties, these men guarded supply lines, fought guerrillas, and stood firm under fire. Confederate troops often refused to take them prisoner — killing them outright instead. Yet they pressed on.

At war’s end, they were sent home in uniform — rifle in hand — having earned not just victory, but dignity.

Their courage helped reshape America’s future.

🪖 Because for men like Charles Tyree, freedom wasn't just given—it was earned in battle.

09/17/2025

🪨 Life Before Cities: Alabama’s Archaic Period

Long before cotton fields, Civil War forts, or iron furnaces—Alabama was wild, untamed, and full of resourceful bands of hunter-gatherers who thrived here for thousands of years. We’re talking the Archaic Period: from 8500 BCE to 1000 BCE.

This was a time of massive change. The Ice Age had just ended, the climate warmed, and Alabama began to look a lot more like it does today. With mastodons gone and farming still a distant dream, Native peoples adapted fast—moving with the seasons, hunting deer and turkeys, gathering hickory nuts, blackberries, and mussels by the bucketload.

(And yes—those giant piles of mussel shells they left behind? Archaeologists call them middens. We call them: prehistoric leftovers.)

🏹 These Archaic folks didn’t build pyramids or write books—but they did craft razor-sharp stone tools, giant sandstone bowls, and fishing net weights. They traded rocks across hundreds of miles, buried their dead with care, and—eventually—started planting squash and sunflowers. By Late Archaic times, pottery made its first appearance in Alabama, and early horticulture was on the rise.

Despite the hard life—broken bones, arthritis, occasional warfare—people lived in tight-knit bands and adapted beautifully to the land.

💡 Want to see this history up close? Visit Russell Cave National Monument or the Indian Mound & Museum in Florence. These places preserve the story of Alabama’s first true locals—thousands of years before the first settlers ever stepped foot here.

📜 Because before there was a state… there was survival.

09/16/2025

⚾ Walking Where Legends Played… 🏟️

We had the incredible opportunity to explore Rickwood Field, the oldest baseball park in America, alongside author and baseball historian Art Black. From the stands to the infield, we walked the same grounds where legends once played and uncovered the forgotten stories behind one of the most historic showdowns in baseball history.

This wasn’t just a visit—it was stepping back in time. The echoes of the past are alive at Rickwood, and every inch of this field tells a story that shaped America’s pastime.

👉 Don’t miss this episode of Exploring History! Click the link below to watch the full story: 🎥 https://youtu.be/DII2cjiH2Vo

Episode 14: Step back in time to Rickwood Field, the oldest professional baseball park in America, as we uncover The Showdown History Forgot.In this episod...

09/16/2025

⚾️ To me, baseball is the ultimate American sport—and having the privilege to collaborate with the nation’s oldest baseball park, Rickwood Field, was nothing short of incredible.

Walking the grounds where legends played and listening to author Art Black share the deep history of this place was absolutely mind-blowing. Every corner of Rickwood tells a story—of grit, of triumph, of a game that brought communities together.

This isn’t just a ballpark, it’s a living museum. A place where history still echoes in the stands and on the field. If you’re a baseball fan—or simply someone who loves history—you need to experience Rickwood Field. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed, because anyone you meet here will gladly share its incredible legacy. That passion ensures Rickwood’s story will never fade.

📍 A true must-see, where baseball and history collide.

09/15/2025

📜 Thomas Bibb – Alabama’s Accidental Governor

Before Alabama was a state, Thomas Bibb was already hustling in frontier territory—building businesses, making deals in Huntsville, and establishing ties with the town’s elite. While his brother William Wyatt Bibb would go on to become Alabama’s first governor, it was Thomas who got there first… and, ironically, Thomas who ended up running the state—sort of by accident.

Born around 1783 in Virginia, Thomas came from a family of Revolutionary War stock. They moved to Georgia with other veterans chasing land bounties and to***co dreams. By 1811, Thomas had made his way to the Mississippi Territory (soon-to-be Alabama), setting up shop in Limestone County. Politically active but not overly ambitious, he helped draft the state constitution in 1819 and became president of the state senate.

🎩 Then fate stepped in.

When Governor William Bibb fell from his horse and died in 1820, Alabama’s constitution passed the office to the senate president. Suddenly, Thomas Bibb was governor. No campaign. No slogan. Just “Congratulations, you’re in charge now.”

Problem was… Thomas didn’t really want the job.

His tenure came during the chaotic aftermath of the Panic of 1819. People were angry. Banks were failing. Northern and Southern legislators were bickering over who got how many seats. Thomas proposed a state bank, but with no real political muscle, it didn’t go far. Most folks saw him as a placeholder until the next election—and he didn’t argue.

He declined to run in 1821, served in the legislature later, and eventually ran the Huntsville branch of the state bank. Thomas Bibb died in 1839 at his Belle Mina plantation and is buried in Huntsville’s Maple Hill Cemetery.

📍 Alabama history doesn’t always come wrapped in drama—but sometimes, it stumbles into the governor’s office.

09/15/2025

🌊 Noccalula Falls isn’t just one of Alabama’s most breathtaking waterfalls — it’s also home to one of the state’s most haunting legends.

The story tells of Princess Noccalula, who leapt from the cliffs rather than marry someone she did not love. Today, her memory lives on in the statue that overlooks the falls, and in the stories passed down for generations.

It’s places like this that remind us that Alabama’s history is more than dates and names — it’s legends, landscapes, and the stories that still echo through them.

✨ Have you ever visited Noccalula Falls? Did you know the legend before you went?