The Selma Times-Journal from Selma, Alabama • 9

THE SELMA TIMES- JOURNAL B1 Old Cahawba: Linking past and present LIFEStyle BY JEAN MARTIN THE SELMA TIMES JOURNAL OLD CAHAWBA This ghost town became a historical fact as early as 1540 when Hernando DeSoto recorded passing Casiste, a Native American village in the same location. Nearly 200 years later, Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville marked the site on his map and called it Caba. The following year, in 1733, the Marquis deCrenay named the site Capo on the map he drew of the area. By the end of the first decade of the 19th century, the site had become a thriving Native American village. Andt the year after the formation of the Alabama Territory, the Legislature formed Dallas County with Cahawba as its seat of government.

In 1819, just: a year later, the territory entered the Union with Cahawba as its seat of government until 1825, after the Alabama Legislature moved the capital to Tuscaloosa. Essential to the history of the state, various efforts have kept this ghost town alive: From the 1921 monument to mark the site of the first state capital placed by the Alabama Centennial Commission to the employment of archaeologist Linda Derry in 1986 as site director of Cahawba Archaeological Park by the Alabama Historic Commission. Now the Cahawba Foundation Inc. has established a membership organization under its wing, working jointly with the Alabama Historical Commission, known as Cahaba Descendants. 'Every eligible descendant SEE CAHAWBA, PAGE B2 Brook Robertson awarded Alabama Power scholarship Brook Robertson of Marion has each been awarded a $1,250 scholarship from the Alabama Power Foundation.

Eligible students are dependent children of active, retired or deceased Alabama Power employees. Winners are selected based on academic merit and other factors by an independent organization. The award is renewable for the number of years normally required to complete an undergraduate degree program, provided the honoree makes satisfactory academic progress. "Even in these uncertain times, there is one investment that always pays dividends -education," said Charles McCrary, Alabama Power president and CEO. "Alabama Power is proud to invest in the future of these outstanding young people." Brook Robertson graduated from John T.

Morgan Academy and is the daughter of Dan and Paula Robertson. Paula Robertson is a business office supervisor for the Selma and Marion Alabama Power offices. Brook was the Dallas County Girl of the Year, student government president, National Honor Soci- BARRETT WELCH THE TIMES- JOURNAL Morgan graduate Brook Robertson received a $1,250 scholarship from the Alabama Power Foundation. the Black Belt's many layers tors of ours, and left their dwelling places as the visible heritage of their industriousness. Throughout the Black Belt, many of these houses still stand: Greek Revival, Plantation Plain, Federal, Italianate, Queen Anne and Victorian, Dog Trot and Raised Cottage.

We find a treasure trove of historic houses. People from other parts of the country pay dearly to see them, to walk their halls and hear the tales of those who walked there before them. In these houses are artifacts, mementos and relics of other days and other ways, and a story of civilization comparable to those of ancient Greece and Rome in culture. But, someone must open the doors and say, "Come in. You are welcome." There are tales to be told also, tales of log cabins and Indian raids and the tragedy of PHOTOS COURTESY TOP: The Female Academy as it stood in 1903.

FAR LEFT: A painting of Kitty Watson, an ancestor of Menzo W. Driskell Ill. JEAN T. MARTIN THE TIMES- JOURNAL LEFT: Park Manager and Site Archeologist Linda Derry with the Cahawba visitor register. SPECIAL TO THE SELMA TIMES- JOURNAL sudden death and the happiness of small joys that came to those who felled the trees and cleared the land and brought forth the first crops.

But someone must tell them. There is a need to put aside insularity, a need to tear down the walls of separateness and selfishness, an urgent need to think in terms of togetherness and community because in community there is strength. In combined talents and thought and concern lie the ways to victory, which for the Black Belt Council meant persuading tourists off the interstates and into the heart of ral south central Alabama. That was the meaning and purpose of the organization of the Council more than two decades ago, and in many ways it succeeded. However, there are those ety president, Perry County Junior Miss, Girls State Representative, head cheerleader, Senior Homecoming Maid and Senior Beauty.

She was a member of the Beta Club, the AISA AllStar Academic Team, the D- Group Bible Study and was named an AISA and UCA All Star in basketball. She also participated in dance. Winners are selected by International Scholarship and Tuition Services Inc. The scholarships may be used by full-time students at any accredited, nonprofit college or university, technical, vocational or trade school in the United States. More than the Black Belt cil was formed from the five that lie between the northeast, mopolis and on the west compass the around Uniontown, den, Marion Greensboro.

Alabama's Belt is more the geographic cations two decades ago Tourism Counby residents or six counties Prattville on DeEutaw and enarea Selma, Camand Black than lomentioned. Jean T. It is an affair of the Martin heart, a state of mind, a mystique that has its origin in those dauntless pioneers who trudged from Virginia through the Carolinas and Georgia to this rich land in search of room to grow and fresh air to breathe. They built well, these ances- who still do not recognize tourism as a major industry, although those clean, green dollars rolling into Alabama from tourists are an obvious sign. True, due to the price of gasoline and the uncertain state of the national economy, fewer tourists are driving into and through the state at present.

That, however, will cease. It always has and, to quote a favorite Washington politician, "Things always get better. Just hold on and prepare for when it happens." In Selma and the Black Belt we have long recognized the value of our natural resources. We are aware of the Black Belt that is a sturdy, natural place of rivers and lakes, wooded hills and fields, and of the appeal to visitors of the hunting (quail, deer and dove) and fishing made possible by these God-given resources. We, like our visitors, are fascinated by the mystic appeal found in 1 historic Cahawba.

And for sheer natural beauty, what is more appealing to a vacationing refugee from an asphalt city jungle than moonlight over a tree-edged meadow where deer are feeding or the cry of wild geese heading south into the sunset over the Alabama River? Such was the purpose of the former Black Belt Tourism Council. Such must be the purpose of our tourism industry: enough tourism dollars to make and keep the Black Belt economically stable. Let us join hands and hearts in resolve to do it. Jean T. Martin is Life Style editor emeritus of the Times- Journal.

Her column appears each Sunday..