Wetumpka

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wetumpka
Court Street in the historic center
Court Street
in the historic center
Location in Alabama
Elmore County Alabama Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Wetumpka Highlighted 0181720.svg
Basic data
Foundation : 1834
State : United States
State : Alabama
County : Elmore County
Coordinates : 32 ° 32 ′  N , 86 ° 12 ′  W Coordinates: 32 ° 32 ′  N , 86 ° 12 ′  W
Time zone : Central ( UTC − 6 / −5 )
Residents : 8,219 (as of 2016)
Population density : 299.2 inhabitants per km 2
Area : 28.59 km 2  (approx. 11 mi 2 ) of
which 27.47 km 2  (approx. 11 mi 2 ) is land
Height : 56 m
Postcodes : 36092-36093
Area code : +1 334
FIPS : 01-81720
GNIS ID : 0155305
Website : www.cityofwetumpka.com
Mayor : Jerry Willis

Wetumpka is a city in Elmore County in the central-eastern part of Alabama and the county seat of the county . Before the American Civil War it was a prosperous administrative center. After that, a decline set in over decades, which was only stopped at the beginning of the 20th century . The city is now considered a regional center again and in 2016 had a population of 8,800.

geography

Waterfalls on the Coosa River near Jordan Dam

Geographically, Wetumpka is characterized by its location on the Coosa River . The main part of the city lies on the western bank. On the eastern side, the urban area extends in the form of a strip that runs along the Coosa and protrudes into the surrounding landscape in a tubular shape. The landscape of the region is characterized by the forest cover typical of northern Alabama . Geographically, the city's territory lies in the transition zone between the Appalachian foothills, the Piedmont Plateau and the more level Gulf Coast foreland in the southern part of the state. The climate is subtropical . The average temperatures are around 8 ° C in winter and around 27 ° in summer . The monthly rainfall is relatively evenly around 120 mm per month; only in March and October is it significantly higher and amounts to 140 to 160 mm.

Wetumpka is the administrative seat in the southwestern quarter of Elmore County. Surrounding towns and cities are clockwise: Blue Ridge , the state capital Montgomery , Prattville Junction , Millbrook , Elmore , Deatsville, and Holtville . The only city that is also directly on the river - in the immediate vicinity of the Jordan Dam and the section of the Coosa River that it dammed, the Jordan Lake - is Holtville. The most important connection over the Coosa River is the Bibb Graves Bridge - a nationally known bridge , which also serves as the city's landmark. The distance to Montgomery is around 20 kilometers. The most important interregional connecting road is US Highway 231 , which runs north-south through the east of the city . Interstates 65 and 85 are not far from the city . The distance to the nearest airport , Montgomery Regional Airport , is around 35 kilometers.

The Wetumpka impact crater, an 83 million year old, around 8 kilometer wide meteorite crater, is significant as a prehistoric relic . Visible remains of the crater are on the eastern edge of the city; the original faults are, however, only barely visible due to vegetation and buildings.

history

Mississippi and Alabama Territories
Menawa , one of the leaders of Upper Creek

In the 17th and 18th centuries , the area was part of the territory of the Creek . The first European bases existed as early as the 18th century. Under the aegis of the colonist Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville , the French built the Fort Toulouse base at the confluence of the Tallapoosa and the Coosa River. The outpost, built in 1714, was part of Louisiana , the western part of the French New France colonial formation. After the defeat in the French and Indian War (the North American counterpart to the Seven Years War ) the area became part of the British Illinois Territory . In 1798, the United States established a new territorial entity in the region - the Mississippi Territory . As the settlement gradually began at the beginning of the 19th century , the pressure on the Indian tribes living in the region increased . The western sub-tribe of the Creek, which lived in northeastern and central Alabama, fought against the advance of the Americans in a series of armed conflicts. Andrew Jackson's campaign against Upper Creek from 1812 to 1814 ended with the defeat of the tribe and the cession of large tribal areas in central Alabama. Fort Toulouse, a key military base of operations during Jackson's campaign, was renovated after the war and renamed Fort Jackson.

After splitting off from Mississippi Territory and being (provisionally) constituted as an independent territory , Alabama was admitted to the Union as a federal state in 1819 . The area around Fort Jackson was initially added to the Counties Autauga and Coosa , later the newly founded Montgomery County . Settlers from Georgia and the Carolinas now settled in larger numbers in the region; as did numerous ex-soldiers who served in Andrew Jackson's Tennessee militia. Wetumpka was officially founded as a town in 1834. In 1836 the town had around 1200 inhabitants. According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama , a newspaper in the east compared the city's growth at the time with that of Chicago, which was also thriving . In 1839 Wetumpka became the seat of the state prison . In 1845 the city, along with Montgomery, was shortlisted in determining the state capital . By 1850 the population had risen to around 3,800. The main economic factor was cotton production - transported by steamship traffic on the Coosa River and its extension in the direction of the Gulf, the Alabama River . In terms of usage, the city was divided into two parts: the business center was on the east bank of the Coosa, and the residential districts belonging to the city on the west.

The civil war and the associated defeat of the Confederates hit Wetumpka hard. Many residents migrated. The population , which had been several thousand before the war, fell to 1,137 by 1870 - more than half of them were former slaves . At the administrative level, the Reconstruction Government of Alabama created a new entity - Elmore County, of which Wetumpka was designated as the administrative seat. In the 1880s, the city was the site of two devastating natural disasters - a large flood that ravaged bridges and buildings in 1886 and an earthquake three years later. By 1900 the population had fallen to half of the 1870 level. At the turn of the century , the decline slowly reversed. New infrastructure facilities were added. The most important: an agricultural school devoted to the more targeted use of resources in the region (1897) and a goods depot of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad , which facilitated the removal of goods (1906). In the first quarter of the 20th century sidewalks , electricity supply and public water supply followed , the establishment of a public school system , the construction of a paved connection road to Montgomery and - in 1913 - a new theater .

The upward trend since the turn of the century continued in the following decades. 1931 was Bibb Graves Bridge completed in 1932, the courthouse for the Elmore County Courthouse District, 1935, the first traffic light and in 1938 the first urban post office . Development stagnated for a while during the Second World War . In the following decades, however, the urban infrastructure continued to improve. One was the establishment of an urban planning authority in 1950 , which was supposed to control economic development in a more targeted manner. In the 1970 census, the number of inhabitants exceeded that of 1850 for the first time. Current census figures put them at over 8,000.

growth of population
Census Residents ± in%
1850 3884 -
1870 1137 -
1880 816 -28.2%
1890 14,328 1,655.9%
1900 619 -95.7%
1910 562 -9.2%
1920 1520 170.5%
1930 2357 55.1%
1940 3089 31.1%
1950 3813 23.4%
1960 3672 -3.7%
1970 3912 6.5%
1980 4341 11%
1990 4910 13.1%
2000 5763 17.4%
2010 6528 13.3%

Demographics and Politics

According to 2016 data from the United States Census Bureau , the population that year was 8,219 people. The ACS Demographic and Housing Estimates survey from the same year lists a population of 7,654 people. 2,985 of them were male , 4,669 female . 6,255 residents were 18 years of age or older, 1,399 children or adolescents , 1,050 older than 65 years. The median age was 38.9 years. 5,078 of the respondents described themselves as white (66.3%), 2,306 as African American (30.1%), and 38 as Asian (0.5%). 149 (1.9%) stated that they belong to two or more ethnic groups. Regardless of the question about the census declaration Race , 83 residents described themselves as Hispanic or Latino (1.1%).

According to Quickfacts information on census.gov , the median income per household was 43,750 US dollars (USD). As people living in poverty , the census showed 10.8%, as people without health insurance 8.9%. The determined median income is well below that for the US as a whole (USD 53,000) and slightly below that for all of Alabama (USD 43,300).

In presidential elections, Wetumpka and the surrounding Elmore County confirmed the general trend in rural southern regions with a white majority. The major trend for the southern states - away from the Democrats towards the Republicans - is even more evident here than in the more heterogeneous state as a whole. The county's Republican scores have been roughly 10 percent higher than the state since the 1980s. In the 2016 presidential election , Donald Trump received around 74% in Elmore County, Hillary Clinton 22% (comparative values ​​for all of Alabama: 62% and 34%). A county majority result for the Democrats last brought the 1976 presidential election with Georgia candidate Jimmy Carter . In the county, approval for the Democrat right-wing winger George Wallace, who entered the list of the American Independent Party in 1968, was above average : in all of Alabama it was 66%, in Elmore County 76%.

Economy, employment and education

Personal services, education and health care rank first as an employment sector in Wetumpka. According to the Encyclopedia of Alabama , the individual sectors are broken down as follows:

Wetumpka public schools are part of the Elmore County school system. They include two elementary schools, a middle school and a high school. Together they teach about 3,080 students; the number of teachers employed is 177. The range of courses is supplemented by three private schools . University educational institutions can be found in nearby Montgomery - including Alabama State University and Auburn University .

Facilities and sights

Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women
Historic building on Autauga Street (1933)
Bibb Graves Bridge from 1936

As an urban regional center with a local history that goes back well into the 19th century, Wetumpka offers a range of different facilities and sights. The most important are:

  • the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women , a high-security women's prison on the northern outskirts, which also houses the death row for women. Between 1842 and 1942, Wetumpka was the seat of the Wetumpka State Penitentiary . The buildings are now part of the officially listed Historic Places in the city.
  • A total of nine structures and sites in and near Wetumpka are registered on the National Register of Historic Places . Among other things, the following are listed: the First Baptist Church of Wetumpka, the First Presbyterian Church, the East Wetumpka Commercial Historic District as a cohesive building complex and the old Fort Toulouse complex about 7 kilometers from the city . The fort has been a National Historic Landmark since October 1960 .
  • the 1936 Bibb Graves Bridge built over the Coosa River, which also serves as the city's landmark.
  • the Jasmine Hill Gardens: an open air museum with ancient statues from Greece . The facility is now maintained by a non-profit foundation.
  • the Coosa River Callenge - a triathlon marathon that has been taking place regularly since 2003 , in which between 150 and 200 people regularly take part.
  • Christmas at the Coosa - an annual series of events in December. The venue is the Bibb Grabes Bridge. The main attractions are fireworks and a boat show on the Coosa River.
  • The area of ​​the Wetumpka Impact Crater is marked with a marker board.
  • the Casino Wind Creek . The Poarch Band of Creek Indians, the only Creek group still based in Alabama, announced in 2011 that it would expand the existing casino, which is located in the city center on the eastern side of the river, by an approximately 256 million, 20-story complex. The new facility should guarantee 600 permanent jobs as well as 1200 temporary ones during the construction phase.

sons and daughters of the town

Born in Wetumpka or resident there for a long time:

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Climate & weather in Wetumpka . de.climate-data.org, accessed on January 9, 2018
  2. ^ Overview of Elmore County, Alabama . statisticalatlas.com, accessed January 9, 2018
  3. ^ Impact Crater . Information about the Wetumpka crater on wetumpkachamber.com, accessed on January 9, 2018 (Engl.)
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Wetumpka . Adrienne A. Thompson, Encyclopedia of Alabama, Jul 7, 2009
  5. ↑ a b c d Wetumpka History . Peggy Blackburn, Wetumpka Herald's Historic Elmore County Magazine 1996-97, accessed January 9, 2018.
  6. ^ Population of Wetumpka, AL . population.us, accessed January 9, 2018
  7. ↑ a b Wetumpka City, Alabama . Overview infobox on the website of the United States Census Bureau, accessed on January 9, 2018 (Engl.)
  8. ^ Wetumpka City, Alabama . ACS Demographic and Housing Estimates, 2016, American FactFinder, accessed January 9, 2018.
  9. ^ Household Income in Wetumpka, Alabama . Household income overview on statisticalatlas.com, accessed January 9, 2018
  10. ↑ 2016 Presidential General Election Results . Interactive map with district-disaggregated results 1789-2016 at eclection.org, accessed on January 9th (Engl.)
  11. ↑ The 5 women on Alabama's Death Row have this in common . Jeremy Gray, al.com, November 19, 2015 (Engl.)
  12. ↑ Search mask database in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed November 13, 2019.
    Weekly List on the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed November 13, 2019.
  13. ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Alabama. National Park Service , accessed November 13, 2019.
  14. ^ Poarch Creeks plans second mega casino in Wetumpka . Ellen Mitchell, blog.al.com, July 11, 2012

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