Located in the east south central United States, Alabama has been known variously as the Cotton Plantation State, the Camellia State, the Lizard State, and today as The Heart of Dixie because of its position at the center of the deep south. Still another popular nickname is the Yellowhammer State, which originated during the Civil War when a company of Alabama soldiers dressed in uniforms trimmed with brilliant yellow, reminding people of the yellowhammer bird. Alabama was named after a river which was named after the Alibamu Indians, a Chickasaw tribe. It is a state rich in natural beauty that extends from the mountain lakes and rugged foothills of the Appalachians in the north to the sandy beach resorts along the Gulf. Its two large bays are Mobile and Perdido. Major cities include Montgomery, state capital; Birmingham, the largest; Mobile, its major port; Huntsville, home of the U.S. Army's Redstone Arsenal which includes the George C. Marshal Space Flight Center and the United States Space and Rocket Center; Tuscaloosa, the lumbering and agricultural center; Dothan, home of the National Peanut Festival; Decatur, on the Tennessee River; and industrialized Gadsden. Auburn University and the University of Alabama top a long list of prominent schools of higher learning. Estimated population exceeds 4,400,000.

Alabama borders Tennessee on the north, Georgia and the Chattahoochee River to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico on the south, and Mississippi to the west. Its six major regions are the Interior Lower Plateau, rolling upland in northwest Alabama; the Cumberland Plateau in the center; the Appalachian Ridge and Valley Region, rich in mineral resources; the Piedmont Region in east central Alabama, important for manufacturing; the East Gulf Coastal Region, the state's largest natural region with extensive pine forests; and the Black Belt, a strip of rolling prairie stretching across the state, named for its sticky black clay soil. Forests cover two-thirds of the state, and its largest rivers are the Mobile, the Tombigbee, and the Tennessee. Beautiful state parks and resorts are accessible throughout Alabama, from the shores of Wheeler Lake in the north to the central Oak Mountains to the surf and sand parks on the Gulf of Mexico,

Alabama's diversified economy is supported by agriculture, mining, forestry, commercial fishing, the federal government, finance, and such manufactures as pulp and paper, chemicals, apparel, electronics, textiles, metals, wood products, rubber and plastic products, and transportation equipment. Significant to Alabama's commerce and trade, industrial development, and tourism was the completion of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in 1984. This engineering marvel, the largest water resource project ever built in the United States, required the removal of more cubic yards of soil than either the Suez Canal or Panama Canal. It connects with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and links Mobile, one of the nation's largest seaports, with points as far west as Brownsville, Texas, and as far east as Carrabelle, Florida. Also important to the state economy is aerospace and military research and development. In addition to the waterways, the state is served by international airports at Birmingham and Huntsville; regional airports in Mobile, Montgomery, Dothan, and northwest Alabama; and a modern rail and highway network.

Notable points of interest are the Alabama Museum of Natural History, Mound State Monument, Montgomery's Museum of Fine Arts, George Washington Carver Museum at Tuskegee, Jesse Owens Memorial Park and Museum, the Space and Rocket Center, the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center, Mobile's Bellingrath Gardens and Azalea Trail, Helen Keller's birthplace at Ivy Green. Other popular attractions are Talladega National Forest, the Dauphin Island entrance to Mobile Bay, DeSoto Caverns, Horshoe Bend National Military Park, Magnolia Spring Fishing resort, the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, first White House of the Confederacy in Montgomery, W.C. Handy Home and Museum, USS Alabama Memorial Park, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and Birmingham's Civic Symphony.

Earthen ceremonial mounds today are reminders of the Mississippian culture that flourished in the Alabama region prior to the arrival of the French who constructed a fort in 1717 as protection against the British in pursuing trade with the Native Americans. During the American Revolution the French lost Mobile to the Spanish, who retained West and East Florida by treaty. Alabama became the 22nd state of the Union in 1819. Seven years later the state capital was established in Tuscaloosa, then moved in 1846 to Montgomery. In 1861 Alabama was the fourth state to leave the Union, and the first president of the Confederacy was inaugurated in Montgomery which served as the CSA capital until moved to Richmond, Virginia. Following the Civil War, Alabama was readmitted to the United States in 1868. In 1909 the Wright Brothers established a flight school outside Montgomery on the present site of Maxwell Air Force Base. Alabama's first oil well was drilled in 1944 in Choctaw County. The Dixiecrat Convention met in Birmingham in 1948 and selected Strom Thurmond as its candidate for president on the States Rights ticket. In 1956 the Army Ballistic Missile Agency was created at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville. In 1972 Martin Luther King led 3200 marchers in support of civil rights, and in 1972 Governor George Wallace was shot in Maryland while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination. Today Condoleeza Rice of Birmingham is the first woman appointed national Security Advisor to the President. Well-known natives of Alabama include Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, Civil Rights advocate Rosa Parks, novelist Harper Lee, entertainer Nat King Cole, and baseball Hall of Fame member Henry Aaron.

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