Story and photos by
WARREN RESEN
FLORENCE, AL – All of Florida is still mistaken for the South by those from the North and other foreign countries. Until recently, the further south you traveled in Florida, the further north you went. The only part of Florida that was and can still be considered the South is the North.

The preeminent song about the south, and Florida, is Stephen Foster’s “Way Down Upon The Suwannee River.” It’s about a river he probably never saw, his only trip to the Deep South being a riverboat trip down the Mississippi to New Orleans.
Having just returned from a trip to northern Alabama, I found what many would still consider the Real South and the “Heart of Dixie.”

My trip as a travel writer was to cover the annual 10 day W.C. Handy Festival, in Florence, Alabama, a city named after the city of the same name in Italy. The Italian city is famous for its art. The one in Alabama is famous for the amazing music this area has given the world.

Florence, AL, holds the W.C. Handy festival in late July every year. It’s a big event with more than 300 musical events held. If you are not familiar with his works and wonder why all this hoopla, Handy is considered “The Father of the Blues” starting with his first hit, “The Saint Louis Blues.” W.C. Handy was a true son of the south, having been born in a two-room cabin in Florence in 1873. The cabin has been preserved and is open to the public along with an attached museum. W.C. Handy left us in 1958.

During festival time music flourishes everywhere from street corners to restaurants, to hotels, to the huge Riverside Jazz festival on the banks of the Tennessee River. Most of it is free and family friendly. But music is much more than just blues in this area.

Just across the Tennessee River from Florence is Muscle Shoals where, in an insignificant building at 3614 Jackson Highway, the big names came to record because of the special sound of the area’s musicians: Mick Jager of the Rolling Stones, Simon & Garfunkel, Sonny & Cher, Liza Minelli and many others were all there. The building still stands and is open to the public as a museum. Building on this musical heritage is the Alabama Music Hall of Fame, opened in 1987 in the nearby city of Tuscumbia.

This building was dedicated to the greats of American music, not just country music which is the purview of Nashville. Here tributes are paid to Alabama born icons such as Dianah Washington, W.C.Handy, Jimmy Rogers, Hank Williams, Sam Phillips and so many others who span the spectrum from sophisticated classical composition to humble gospel songs. Alabama was the first state to have opened a music hall of fame and it is privately owned. But there is more there besides music.

The home of Helen Keller, Ivy Green, was a very inspirational stop on my tour. It sits just back from a quiet residential street in Tuscimbia. To actually see her writings and learn what this remarkable woman accomplished, despite being blind and deaf, was remarkable. Anyone who has ever seen the movie, “The Miracle Worker,” knows about the famous hand pump in the backyard of her house. The pump is still there but the scene in the movie was filmed in New Jersey. Sorry about that.

Frank Lloyd Wright, America’s preeminent architect, designed many structures, the largest being the campus of Florida Southern College in Lakeland. In Florence he had a client who commissioned him to do a private residence. There are many FLW houses around the country. The Frank Lloyd Wright/Rosenbaum House is maintained in pristine condition as a museum, with many of the original furnishings also designed by Wright. It is important to mention, because I believe it is the only one of Wright’s homes maintained and open for the benefit of the public.

Alabama is home of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. In Florida, golf is king. In Alabama, it is an obsession. Alabama has positioned the state’s golf courses to be part of its business plan to induce tourists and business to come to the state. And it seems to be working. Unlike many of Florida’s individually owned and frequently private golf courses, Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail has been named number one value in the country for golf. The 26 courses start at the Gulf at the Florida border and march straight north to Tennessee. Now, back to the reason for this article’s headline.

The food is very southern. You can get almost anything you want to eat, especially if it is fried. I even had fried cheese cake at Dale’s steakhouse and chocolate flavored gravy with my morning biscuits at Country Boy’s. Grits with breakfast is a given.

The pace there is slower than most of urban Florida. People are exceptionally friendly and really do say “Howdy y’all” when talking to more than one person. I was one of the judges at a sweet tea challenge and almost overdosed on a sugar high. They really do like their tea sweet. The challenge was sponsored by Y’ALL Magazine.

I asked their tourism people to list the highlights of why anyone would want to visit this area. They told me “It is not for any one thing but the whole package: music, golf, fishing, birding, concerts, art and so much more that Florida can boast — but here it comes with a true southern culture.” And, it’s an easy drive for most Farmer & Rancher readers. The tourist people believe this is an emerging destination.

The area is mostly rural with many of the same problems readers of Farmer & Rancher face. One of the items that frequently came up in conversation was the intrusion of coyotes into the area, and they are there in such numbers as to be a problem to poultry and small animal farmers. The solution? Put a mule in the enclosure or out in the pasture. Mules, they told me, are territorial and not friendly towards coyotes.

Before ending this article, I have to mention my host hotel, The Marriott Shoals Hotel & Spa in Florence. It is unique to the area. Guests comes from hundreds of miles just to take a weekend package. Many rooms overlook the Tennessee River and the Wilson Dam, begun in 1918. The famous TVA, born in 1933, controls this and most waterways in this part of the country. The people in these parts claim that the Tennessee River is the highway to the world because of the 12 million tons of cargo that passes through the locks. But back to the Marriott.

The rooms, service, food and amenities are excellent. I was told that this is the top performing Marriott in the United States. Take a look at their rates and the amenities provided and I think you will be surprised at how reasonably priced it is. Just another reason the visit Florence, Alabama.

Visit www.visitflorenceal.com for more information.