Whether stopping by for an educational outing or just wanting to get in touch with the great outdoors, Perry County offers an array of opportunities ranging from Perry Lakes Park, part of the Talladega National Forest, to the Barton’s Beach Cahaba River Preserve and the Marion State Fish Hatchery to name a few.
Located in the west-central part of the state, Perry County was established Dec. 13, 1819 – the same year Alabama became a state – and is named in honor of United States Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry of Rhode Island. The first towns in the area that would become Perry County were Muckle’s Ridge (now known as Marion), Perry Ridge, Uniontown (originally known as Woodville) and Heiberger. The county comprises approximately 719 square miles of rugged mountains, forests, waterfalls and streams.
While exploring the county, you’ll find Marion Military Institute (MMI), which holds the honor of being the oldest military junior college and preparatory school in the United States. The U.S. Army ROTC program was first offered at MMI in 1916, when the institute was designated as an “Honor Military School with Distinction” by the U.S. Department of Defense.
With students who attend from all over the world, MMI is one of only six military junior colleges in the U.S. which offers unique military training programs. In 1971, MMI became coeducational and, since 1988, MMI hosts the Alabama Military Hall of Honor Museum, displaying portrait plaques of inductees and military artifacts.
Several recreational opportunities are also featured in Marion, such as the Marion Fish Hatchery, which attracts birdwatchers from around the state and country, and for more than 50 years, they have assembled an extensive bird list, including in the last decade, a pair of nesting Bald Eagles.
Biologists, architects and birdwatchers from around the country congregate to this wilderness area. Originally constructed in 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, Perry Lakes Park is nearly 1,000 acres and is home to the tallest birding tower in the Northern Hemisphere.
The park contains several unique features designed and constructed by architecture students from Auburn University’s Rural Studio, including the park’s pavilion, covered bridge, boardwalk and a 100-foot bird observation tower (equivalent to a 10-story building).
The Barton’s Beach Cahaba River Preserve is spread over 125 acres of gravel/sand bars, beaver ponds, swamps and mixed hardwood floodplain forest, and offers a spectacular panorama from which to observe the Cahaba River, the most biodiverse river in North America. More than two dozen species of mussels and 130 species of fish inhabit this free-flowing river.
Educational opportunities abound among the trailways and waterways of Perry County, and for those who seek adventure as well as historical learning opportunities, this is the ideal stopping point!