Tuskegee-Macon County Tourism Resource Guide

Tuskegee-Macon County Tourist Guide

Tuskegee, Shorter, Franklin, Notasulga
Shor

Macon County was created by the Alabama legislature on 1832 Dec. 18,
from territory acquired from the last cession of the Creek Indians, 1832 Mar.
24. It was named for Nathaniel Macon, a distinguished soldier and
statesman from North Carolina. Macon County received its present
dimensions in 1866. It is located in the east-central portion of the state, and
is bordered by Elmore, Tallapoosa, Lee, Russell, Bullock, and Montgomery
Counties. It encompasses 614 square miles. The county seat is Tuskegee,
named after a Creek Indian town that was located at the confluence of the
Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers. Tuskegee is also the site of Tuskegee
University. Other towns and communities include Shorter, Franklin, and
Notasulga. The Tuskegee National Forest is located in Macon County.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

National Historic Sites
Museums
Interactive Adventures

National Historic Sites

Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
1616 Chappie James Ave., Tuskegee
334-724-0922
Hours: 9:00 AM – 4:30PM Mon- Sat
Fee: No Charge

Before 1940, African Americans were barred
from flying for the U.S. military. Civil rights
organizations and the black press exerted
pressure that resulted in the formation of an all
African-American pursuit squadron based in
Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1941. They became
known as the Tuskegee Airmen.

"Tuskegee Airmen" refers to all who were
involved in the so-called "Tuskegee
Experiment," the Army Air Corps program to
train African Americans to fly and maintain
combat aircraft. The Tuskegee Airmen included
pilots, navigators, bombardiers, maintenance
and support staff, instructors, and all the
personnel who kept the planes in the air.[1]

The military selected Tuskegee Institute to train
pilots because of its commitment to aeronautical
training. Tuskegee had the facilities, and
engineering and technical instructors, as well as
a climate for year-round flying. The first Civilian
Pilot Training Program students completed their
instruction in May 1940. The Tuskegee program
was then expanded and became the center for
African-American aviation during World War II.[1]

The Tuskegee Airmen overcame segregation
and prejudice to become one of the most highly
respected fighter groups of World War II. They
proved conclusively that African Americans
could fly and maintain sophisticated combat
aircraft. The Tuskegee Airmen's achievements,
together with the men and women who
supported them, paved the way for full
integration of the U.S. military.

George Washington Carver Museum
Campus Road, Tuskegee
334-724-6025
Hours: 9:00 AM – 4:30PM Mon- Sat
Fee: No Charge

For more than forty years, Dr George
Washington Carver labored at Tuskegee
Institute. He was the son of a slave woman,
whose owner was named Moses Carver.
Carver remained on Moses' estate until he was
12 years of age. He would paint pictures of
flowers, plants, and landscapes. He never
ceased efforts to improve the living conditions
and surroundings of rural and farm people -
particularly those who lived in the South - and to
extract from nature through scientific research
those elements and resources which could be
made useful for the benefit of mankind. Many
honors came to him during his lifetime, but none
gave him more genuine pleasure and
satisfaction than his own museum. It was
always his wish that everything he did would be
available to the public for the general good of
all.

The George Washington Carver Museum was
authorized by the trustees of Tuskegee Institute
in 1938 at the request of President Frederick D.
Patterson. The Museum, formerly the school
laundry, housed Dr Carver's extensive
collections of native plants, minerals, birds and
vegetables; his products from the peanut, sweet
potato and clays; and his numerous paintings,
drawings, and textile art. The Museum was
formally dedicated by Mr and Mrs Henry Ford in
1941. In January 1943, Dr Carver died and was
buried in the Campus Cemetery.

Tuskegee National Forest
125 National Forest Rd. 949, Tuskegee
334-727-2652
Hours: 8:30AM – 4:00PM M-F
Fee: No Charge

Located in east-central Alabama, Tuskegee
National Forest spans just over 11,000 acres,
making it is the smallest U.S. national forest. But
what Tuskegee lacks in acreage, it makes up for
in history, recreational opportunities, and off-the-
beaten path solitude. President Dwight D.
Eisenhower proclaimed the area a national
forest in 1959.

Naturalist and author William Bartram traveled
through what is now Tuskegee National Forest
during his exploration of the southeastern U.S.
in the 1770s. Bartram recorded his experience
along the broad floodplains of the Tallapoosa
River in what is now Macon County, AL, in his
book Bartram’s Travels. An eight-mile section of
hiking trail dedicated to Bartram runs through
the center of the national forest. (Fun fact: The
original title of Bartram’s book, which was
eventually shortened, was Travels through
North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and
West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the
Extensive Territories of the Muscolgulges 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.)

Tuskegee National Forest is about a 20-minute
drive from downtown Auburn and lies on the
outskirts of a town that shares its name. Hiking
along the forest’s trails or camping in its
primitive sites, one is reminded of the stories of
the past and, perhaps, what might lie in the
future.

MUSEUMS

Harris Barrett School
3167 CR 27, Tuskegee. AL 36083
334-727-3184
Hours: Tours by Appt. Only!
Fee: No Charge

Built in 1903 by students of the Tuskegee
Normal School, later named Tuskegee Institute
and now Tuskegee University. The students
made the bricks by hand and built the two room
school under the directions of Dr. Booker T.
Washington. It was constructed for the
descendants of slaves. Located on three acres
of land and restored to its originality, today it is a
developing historic museum that tells the story
of early school life and living in rural Alabama.
The school houses the exposition of local
African Americans education and achievements
from the slave ships to the space ships,
highlighting those of Tuskegee University who
helped develop the NASA project of growing
food in space.

The SIC built this two-room school in 1904 and
named it for Harris Barrett, graduate and cashier
of Hampton Institute and SIC bookkeeper. Local
farmers took up Booker T. Washington's call for
education and committed proceeds from one
acre of their farms to extend the school year. At
its height, the"Brick School” enrolled 200
students for a three-term year, summer, fall and
winter - spring. The first faculty was Lottie
Greene, wife of the farm manager at Tuskegee
Normal and Industrial Institute and Marie
Chambliss, sister of the SIC farm manager.
They also used the schoolhouse for Mothers'
Meetings, Tuskegee Institute-sponsored
farmers' conferences, agricultural courses,
Farmers Institutes and demonstrations by the
Jesup Agricultural Wagon, a George
Washington Carver designed" Movable School.”
The Harris Barrett School continued to operate
until 1958. It was listed in the Alabama Register
of Landmarks and Heritage in 2006.

Tuskegee University Legacy Museum
1 Benjamin F. Payton Dr., Tuskegee
334-724-8888
Hours: 8:00AM – 4:00PM
Fee: No Charge

The Legacy Museum is part of a consortium of
museums at Tuskegee University that includes
the Dr. George Washington Carver Museum,
The Booker T. Washington Home-The Oaks and
the Tuskegee Airmen Museum. the Legacy
Museum exhibits works from its art collection
and interprets, additionally, public health,
science and medicine. The Museum's
exhibitions and programs reach international
audiences and history buffs and art enthusiasts
of all ages.

Located in the National Center for Bioethics in
Research and Health Care/ John A. Kenney
Hall, The Legacy Museum is an outgrowth of the
Official Proclamation by President William
Jefferson Clinton against the misdeeds of the
United States Public Health Service in its
Untreated Syphilis Study in the Negro Male in
Macon County, Alabama, 1932-1972.

On the third floor of the museum are two
exhibits. The Patient, The Project, The
Partnership: The Mass Production and
Distribution of HeLa cells at Tuskegee
University and the United States Public Health
Service Untreated Syphilis Study in the Negro
Male, 1932-1972.

Commodore Museum
208 E. Martin Luther King Dr.,
Tuskegee
334-724-0777
Hours: 9:00AM – 5:00PM
Fee:

In their prime, the Commodores spent six
months a year working out of Commodore
Studio, an expansive Tuskegee space where
the band wrote, rehearsed and recorded
classic songs like "Brick House," "Easy" and
"Three Times a Lady." The band owned equal
shares of the nondescript white-brick building
on East Martin Luther King Highway, where
they made music history for the better part of a
decade.

But after Tuskegee-born frontman Lionel
Richie left the band in 1982 to pursue a solo
career, the Commodores left the studio and the
thousands of dollars worth of equipment and
memorabilia within it behind. It all sat unused
until about 15 years ago, when the band's
former bodyguard, Johnny Bailey, discovered it
was on the market, setting off a series of
events that resulted in the building reopening
late last month as the Commodore Museum.

"Those are all original stage-worn uniforms,
stage-used equipment, that's a platinum
record," he said, pointing to various objects on
display in a glass case at the front of the
museum decorated like a stage.

"That is the first guitar the Commodores
bought for their bass player. And you see the
keyboards, and those little bongos, all the way
up to the squeeze bottles, this is all stage-used
stuff, stuff they actually used on the stage. It
was already here, all of it. It was left in here in
the building."

Tuskegee Human & Civil Rights
Museum
104 S. Elm Street, Tuskegee
334-724-0600
Hour:
Fee:

Established in 1997 as the Tuskegee Human
and Civil Rights Multicultural Center, later
named the Tuskegee History Center, our non-
profit organization was formed originally and
primarily to serve as a permanent memorial to
the victims and survivors of the Tuskegee
Syphilis Study. The men of the Study
requested an apology from the federal
government in a press conference held at
Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in Notasulga,
Alabama. During the press conference, Study
survivor Herman Shaw said, "...we want to
build in Tuskegee...recognizing our
contributions and others from Macon County
have made to this country." The vision of Mr.
Herman Shaw and that of civil rights attorney
Fred Gray, encompassed the rich history of the
entire community. Under this new vision would
be the recognition of the three cultural groups
that have contributed tot he shaping and
reshaping of Macon County - Native
Americans, European Americans, and African
Americans.

The museum has grown quite considerably its
initial conception. In 1998, Alabama Exchange
Bank (now PNC) deeded a downtown bank
building (formerly Southtrust Bank) to the
Center for a place to house museum exhibits
that tell the history of Tuskegee and Macon
County. In 2001, the Center presented its first
temporary exhibit about the Tuskegee Syphilis
Study, titled "A Greater Good

ECO FRIENDLY ADVENTURES

Ridge Archaeology Project
10735 County Road 10, Union Springs

(please call for accurate directions)

770-843-1913
Hours: By Appointment
Fee:

"The Ridge" is a cluster of historic communities
located along a ridge line in southeast Macon
County where Native Americans created a
trading path long ago. The path became a
segment of The Federal Road - the main
pioneer route to the Old Southwest during the
great "Alabama Fever" migration. The Ridge
communities bustled with Native American
activity from pre-historic times and
pioneer activity from about 1817-1865.

Encompassed in the stories of The Ridge
ancestors are noteworthy events, places and
accomplishments that allow for the study and
analysis of the present-day effect of early U.S.
migratory and trade-good patterns and the
impact on Native Americans, the economics of
small-scale plantation life and tenant farming,
pre and post Creek Indian-conflict and Civil
War kinship and social dynamics and the
evolution of the Black Belt region and heritage.

Shady Grove Blueberry Patch
690 County Road 81, Tuskegee
(334) 703-2603
Hours: By Appointment
Fee:

Shady Grove Road Blueberry Patch is a
beautiful two acre blueberry farm. Here the
berries are deep blue and the birds are always
singing.

You can pick the berries yourself, it's a great
family outing, or get the ones we've already
picked for you.

Connecting with Birds & Nature Tours
The Joe Farm
Newbern, Al
(334) 321-1880
Hours: By Appointment
Fee:

Connecting with Birds and Nature Tours hosted
the Birmingham Audubon Society on a birding
tour in Newbern, Alabama on 2-16-19. This is a
new business that provides the opportunity

The Joe Farm
Newbern, Al
(334) 321-1880
Hours: By Appointment
Fee:

One of Alabama’s premiere Black Angus farm.
It is also home to hunting whitetail deer, turkeys
and rabbits.

Whipporwill Winery
4282 County Road 31, Notasulga
334-257-2711
Hours: Thursday: 10am - 6pm

Friday: 10am - 6pm
Saturday: 10am - 6pm
Fee:

Whippoorwill Vineyards is a family owned
and operated farm winery. Every operation
is done by hand. From harvesting, to
bottling, corking and sealing, to putting the
bottle in the box, everybody pitches in to
help. We are delighted to invite you and your
family to visit our winery and experience the
rich flavors of the native Alabama wines.
Embrace the natural beauty and charm of
the countryside surrounding Whippoorwill
Vineyards while enjoying traditional
Southern hospitality.

Milstead Farm Cotton Gin
5746 County Road 40, Shorter
334-727-2338
Hours:
Fee:

Cotton grown in Macon County is also
ginned in Macon County. Cotton grown in
central Alabama is also ginned in Macon
County, in Shorter, at the largest cotton gin
in the central Alabama at the Milstead Farm
Group.

The Shorter-based cotton gin ships ginned
cotton all over the world. Since 1998, its
production capacity has been a huge asset
for the farming community in central
Alabama. The slogan at Milstead Farm
Group is “Providing value added services to
producers in Central Alabama.”

OUTDOOR RECREATION

Tuskegee National Forest Horseback Riding
125 National Forest Road ,
Tuskegee
334-727-2652

Hunting

Shooting Range

Biking

Hiking

Camping

Lake Tuskegee
805 Marina Drive, Tuskegee
334-421-2218

Boating

Bait House

Bird Trails Fishing

ACCOMMODATIONS

TUSKEGEE AIRBNB

Anona House

Greenfork Community
8 Guests/4 Bedrooms
$300.00 Per Night (entire house)

Patterson House

Greenfork Community
6 Guests/3 Bedrooms
$200.00 Per Night (entire house)





















Tuskegee-Macon County Tourism Guide