FLORENCE-Local and state officials held a news conference Monday, September 17, at the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area office, 468 N. Court St., Florence, to announce a state grant award to the Overton Farm Trust, in Hodges.
Secured by Alabama Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow, the $26,000.00 grant will help fund restoration at the historic Overton Farm site and repairs to the Bear Creek Education Center, a popular field-trip destination that closed in 2013. Students visiting the center learned about early frontier life and explored outdoor recreational opportunities.
Carrie Barske
“As Alabama celebrates its bicentennial, it is important that places such as Overton Farm, which Abner Overton established two years before Alabama even became a state, are protected for future generations,” said MSNHA director Carrie Barske Crawford. “We want media representatives to join us to learn more about the future of this valuable resource.”
For the past few years, the Overton Farm Trust has been raising funds and educating people about the site’s significance. The Alabama Historical Commission named the farm to its 2016 Places in Peril list.
The MSNHA also is working toward the site’s restoration.
“This past summer, University of North Alabama history graduate student Sarah Harbin developed an educator’s resource packet about Overton Farm and frontier life that teachers can use in their classrooms,” Crawford said. “Now she’s developing a curriculum to be used on site when Overton Farm reopens to school groups.”
Media Release/Cathy Wood, media coordinator & grants administrator
Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area
