The Lawrence County Archives will host a historical tour on Saturday, June 3. The tour will visit various locations in the southwest region, including Penitentiary Mountain, Youngtown, the Owen Chapel Church, and the Mount Hope area.
The tour will leave from the archives at 9:00 a.m. Thirty seats are available; the county’s public transportation department will provide two buses for the trip. The tour is $10 per person. Seats can be reserved by contacting the archives on Facebook on the Lawrence County Archives page, through email at lawcoarchives@aol.com, or by calling 256-974-1757.
The trip will last three to four hours. The archives will furnish bottles of water but recommend bringing some light food.
“There just won’t be anywhere to stop and eat,” said archivist Wendy Hazle.
Hazle hopes the trip is the beginning of a recurring attraction for the archives.
“I think it’s something we’d like to do every three months or twice a year,” said Hazle. “Maybe more often if it goes well.
“We’d like to do several of them and cover the whole county.”
In March, Ann Britnell, a board member for the Lawrence County Historical Commission, suggested the archives organize historical tours of the county. The board quickly supported the idea.
“We originally thought we could maybe do the northern half of the county,” said Hazle, “then the southern half of the county.”
After further thought, the commission realized that, even divided in half, the county’s historic sites were too numerous to tour in a timely manner.
“If we did a whole northern half of the county historical tour, it would take a whole weekend; same with the southern,” said Hazle. “So we decided to break it up in little chunks.”
The commission contacted public transportation director Robbi Ligon. After hearing their proposal, Ligon was eager to assist.
“She was excited about it,” said Hazle. “She thought it’d be a great idea.”
Though the first tour is on the horizon, Hazle is already considering where to visit in the future.
“I think what we’d like to do next would probably be out toward [the] Hillsboro, Courtland area,” said Hazle. “There’s so much. There’s Pond Spring. There’s downtown Courtland.”
All proceeds will go to the historical commission.
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