Magnolia Springs, Alabama Historical Marker

Posted on by Misty
Magnolia Springs, AL, Historical Marker

Magnolia Springs, Alabama, is located on the Magnolia River in Baldwin County. The headwaters for the river comes from the many springs in the area. It was established due due a Spanish land grant in the 1800s.  After the Civil War, many families and descendants of soldiers on both sides moved to the area.  During the 19th Century, many Creoles from the Mobile area also came to the area as their own community started to fail.

With so many pine forests, Magnolia Springs became known for the production of turpentine. In 1865 during the Civil War, the owners actually burned down the stills to prevent them from being confiscated by the Union Army.  Around the beginning of the 20th Century, chemical firms from Chicago came down and took water samples around the town. In their opinion, the springs around Magnolia Springs were deemed to be the purest in the world.

The town still boasts the only river postal delivery system in the United States, and you can find many boathouses along the banks. It also has a number of houses that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was finally incorporated in 2006.

Historical Marker Inscription

Front:

Settlement of this area began in the early 1700’s and was expedited by a series of Spanish land grants in the early 1800’s. During the 1819-33 time period a brick factory along the south river bank supplied brick for construction of Fort Morgan at the mouth of Mobile Bay. In 1891 the community of Magnolia Springs was established when the first subdivision was platted. The village’s name was a combination of two local assets – the ever-flowing springs and the towering canopy of magnolia trees. Nestled along the banks of the Magnolia River, the village drew residents from Alabama, Vermont, Illinois, and Missouri. Those early settlers built homes and businesses along the main transportation artery, the Magnolia River. Early businesses included turpentine, lumber, and mercantile operations. Inns and hotels were established for the growing tourist trade. Steamers, such as “The Magnolia” brought supplies and passengers to the area. Today, mail is still delivered by boat, as it has been since 1916. It is the last year-round river mail delivery in the U.S.

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For more than 100 years, the Magnolia Springs Community Association, with monthly potlucks, kept people abreast of local events. The Community Hall erected in 1894 still provides a meeting place for residents. A volunteer fire department established in 1961 serves the safety needs of the community. It was housed in a small cinder block structure behind the historic Community Hall and adjacent to Saint Paul’s Chapel (erected in 1902). Today, the Magnolia Springs Volunteer Fire Department has its own modern facility on the former grounds of the old Magnolia Springs School (the school was erected in 1927 and destroyed by fire in 1985). By the turn of the 21st century, residents of the little unincorporated village moved into a new historical phase when the Town of Magnolia Springs was incorporated in 2006. Magnolia Springs, a successful blend of natives and transplants, continue to offer the warmth of the traditional southern hospitality and the appeal of treasured historic heritage.

Location

Magnolia Springs, Alabama

N 30° 24.086, W 087° 46.266

Pueblo of San Ildefonso, Los Alamos, NM

Posted on by Misty
Pueblo de San Ildefonso Church

The history of Pueblo de San Ildefonso dates back to the 1300s when the original inhabitants moved from the Bandelier area to this location after a prolonged drought.  The Pueblo is close to the Rio Grande. These Ancient Puebloans had originally come from the settlement at Mesa Verde, Colorado.

In the 1500s, the Puebloans came in contact with the Spanish. In 1591, Casper Castaño visited the Pueblo. Then, in 1595, Antonio Gutierrez de Umana, and Francisco Leyba de Bonilla headed an unauthorized expedition into New Mexico. They made San Ildefonso their main headquarters.

In 1598, Juan de Oñate came to the area and officially gave the Pueblo its name. Around this time, the village was moved to its present location. Later in 1610, Fray Andrés Bautista created the first permanent mission here.

But the Spanish brought troubles to the people. They required that the Pueblo communities pay tribute to them as well as convert to Catholicism. The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 resulted in the Spanish being expelled from the region for a while, and the San Ildefonso people were a major part of that uprising.

The people resisted the Spanish for several more years after they came back to the area. It wasn’t until 1694 that the Spanish were able to remove the Tewa and Tano people from the mesa. Then, a drought in 1695 that weakened the colonists encouraged the Pueblos to rebel again in 1696. But the mission was reestablished, and a church was built in the village in the 1700s.

In 1821, the area was ruled by Mexico. In 1848, after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, it became part of the United States. After Congress created the reservation system in 1858, a grant of over 17,000 acres of land was given to the village in 1864. It is still a federally recognized tribe.

The Pueblo is today comprised of 60,000 acres and about 750 people live there. It is made up of traditional kivas, a central plaza and a 1960s replica of a 1700s church.

Historical Marker Inscription

Pueblo de San Ildefonso Historical Marker

In the 1500s, migrants from the Pajarito Plateau joined their Tewa-speaking relatives at San Ildefonso. The pueblo is famous as the home of the late Maria Martinez and other makers of polished black pottery. The modern church, a replica of that of 1711, was finished in 1968.

Location

Off State Road 502 along the Rio Grande Valley, East of Los Alamos

N 35.89197, W 106.11836