First, this trip was originally planned as Mobile Area, November 12-19, but that was cancelled because of a case of food poisoning. Later, the trip was rescheduled for December. A week before, the forth northerner for this trip cancelled due to spousal moral support obligations. Two days before, the third northerner cancelled due to lingering colds and coughs in the family. Preparing to meet-up with a southerner in Brewton, AL on December 12, the phone rang with a cancellation because of 13 hours in the ER with a possible case of appendicitis. Two days later, the second southerner called with a story of bronchitis and prescriptions, but he would lead us to some local sites. Being a true NANFAn, he caught fish from the bank at the first stop, stood in the water and caught fish at the second, and filled a boot with water at the third.

Planning trips is always a challenge.

One disturbing trend was beavers. Southwest of Dothan, AL, most of the streams were still pools because of beaver dams. There was even a dead beaver on the highway in suburban Mobile.

Yeah, we've been seeing roadkill beavers in the Tennessee Valley lately. And they messed up one historic stippled studfish site in Elmore County, Alabama; it's no longer a flowing stream but a typical beaver pond. But, that's what they do and have always done.

Hunh. I was off last week. We might have had fun.

Brewton, Alabama is one of the strangest places I have ever visited in North America.

Brewton, Alabama is one of the strangest places I have ever visited in North America.

We had wireless hi-speed internet at the motel but no cell phone service??

Brewton, Alabama is one of the strangest places I have ever visited in North America.

Train tracks down Main Street.

Sometime ago, ~10years, Massachusetts outlawed all forms of fur trapping. As a result, we are now the beaver capitol of the world. Actually, the population has eaten itself out of suitable habitat as is subsiding a bit now. No doubt some flowing stream habitat was impacted for the worse, mostly by silt build up and warming from the sun. One study showed landlocked salmon [a non-native population] was able to navigate the dams to reach headwater spawning habitat.

Species that favor standing water, marsh-like habitat have greatly benifited from the beavers' work. Great blue heron rookeries have exploded across the landscape [how that affects fish and frog populations is anybody's guess] and wood ducks are more common now than they've been in decades. The fish most benifiting from beaver swamps are refin pickeral and banded sunnies.

BTW, an increase of beaver roadkill is a sign that the parent beaver are evicting young of the year from their range in anticipation of the coming generation. The more dense the population, the more roadkill as the wandering YOY travel further overland in search of unoccupied habitat for them to colonize.

[quote name='PhilipKukulski' date='Dec 20 2008, 01:21 AM' post='51151']
First, this trip was originally planned as Mobile Area, November 12-19, but that was cancelled because of a case of food poisoning. Later, the trip was rescheduled for December. A week before, the forth northerner for this trip cancelled due to spousal moral support obligations. Two days before, the third northerner cancelled due to lingering colds and coughs in the family. Preparing to meet-up with a southerner in Brewton, AL on December 12, the phone rang with a cancellation because of 13 hours in the ER with a possible case of appendicitis. Two days later, the second southerner called with a story of bronchitis and prescriptions, but he would lead us to some local sites. Being a true NANFAn, he caught fish from the bank at the first stop, stood in the water and caught fish at the second, and filled a boot with water at the third.....

and went home and crashed for two days. Not as durable as I used to be.

Brewton, Alabama is one of the strangest places I have ever visited in North America.

well im intriqued. Beyond seeing from Philip's pic that they have been dropping blueberries for 17 years what makes Brewton memorable Mr. Tom? I'm always ready for a visit to strangelands, i feel comfortable there.

I was one of the guys planning to go on this trip but was unable to. My wife graduated from college during the scheduled time. It killed me not to go but she would literally have ki... nevermind .

I was able to meet up with Philip and Jim on their return trip. It was great meeting Phil for the first time and Jim again (we met at the Ohio Cichlid Assoc. Extravaganza). I want to thank you guys for your time and generosity. I look forward to collecting with you soon.

well im intriqued. Beyond seeing from Philip's pic that they have been dropping blueberries for 17 years what makes Brewton memorable Mr. Tom? I'm always ready for a visit to strangelands, i feel comfortable there.

Yeah, I've still never seen an organized blueberry drop. Speaking of which, there should be a return to the Rooster Scratch in Kentucky. I've still never posted a dollar bill on their wall.

Hey, I guess tomorrow is the big day for the Blueberry drop. Too bad that's the highlight of the year.
I used to live in Brewton for a time. There's not much going on, really. All the kids do ecstasy just for something to do, unless they're pulling massive scale pranks all over town. One year they swiped an entire nativity scene from an official building's front lawn and set it back up across town in a somewhat embarassing place. It took over two hours and not a cop saw them.
867 is the town's telephone prefix number, so when that famous song 867-5309 hit the airwaves, one house naturally got absolutely blitzed with phone calls. The funny part? The smokin-hot little honey who lived there was actually named Jenny!!! She got mighty popular in a hurry, lemmetellya, and somewhat famous for a few counties around. Good thing she turned out to be a tramp. ( seriously ) Hooboy. Legendary babe. Oddly enough, she's not one of the three major pornstars to have once called Brewton "home." ( really, really not much to do in that town except look for trouble... )

Every so often the town floods. Bigtime. That street scene in the picture above? Put the water line at the top row of windows and you'll have it. The town is cut into three big parts, Brewton, East Brewton, and Alco, and when the water rises all parts are cut off from the others absolutely completely. It's hard to really develop a town when you have to start all over again every few years.
The high school has no kitchen in the cafeteria. Instead, the local restaurants take turns serving food each day.

I don't know if any of this is what TomNear was talking about when he said the place was strange, but he's right nonetheless.