Wiregrass Region
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Wiregrass Region or Wiregrass Country is an area of the Southern United States encompassing parts of southern Georgia, southeastern Alabama, and the Florida Panhandle. The region is named for the native Aristida stricta, commonly known as wiregrass due to its texture. ==Geography-- The region stretches approximately from just below Macon, Georgia and follows the Fall Line west to Montgomery, Alabama. From there it turns south and runs to approximately Washington County, Florida in the northern panhandle. From there it runs east, roughly making its southern boundary along Interstate 10 to Lake City, Florida. From there it turns north, roughly following the Suwanee River back into Georgia and along the western fringes of the Okefenokee Swamp. From here it runs due north back to Macon.
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[edit] Major highways
Interstate 75, Interstate 10, and portions of Interstate 65 traverse parts of the Wiregrass.
[edit] Major cities
Major cities in the region include:
- Dothan, Alabama
- Enterprise, Alabama
- Eufaula, Alabama
- Ozark, Alabama
- Troy, Alabama
- Albany, Georgia
- Americus, Georgia
- Thomasville, Georgia
- Tifton, Georgia
- Valdosta, Georgia
- Lake City, Florida
- Live Oak, Florida
- Marianna, Florida
- Tallahassee, Florida
[edit] Military bases
The region includes Fort Rucker a U.S. Army post located mostly in Dale County, Alabama. The post is the primary flight training base for Army Aviation and is home to the United States Army Aviation Warfighting Center (USAAWC) and the United States Army Aviation Museum.
[edit] Waterways
There are only two major waterways in the region, and they bisect the wiregrass dividing it into three portions. They are the Chattahoochee River and the Flint River which join to form the Apalachicola River which flows south from Bainbridge, Georgia and Lake Seminole to the Gulf of Mexico at Apalachicola, Florida. Other waterways include Little Choctawhatchee River, Choctawhatchee River, and Choctawhatchee Bay.
[edit] Weather
The Wiregrass Region suffers from extremely high humidity in the summer (due to its proximity to the Gulf) and enjoys mild winters. Snowfall occurs occasionally in this region in extremely cold years.
[edit] Article in Harper's Magazine
This depiction of a scene from the Wiregrass Region of southeastern Alabama appeared in the September 1974 issue of Harper's Magazine.
THE ALABAMA WIREGRASSERS
Dry-rooted in penny-coated clay,
the wiregrassers come
suntaned tamed in drawl
through the mire faster.
Machetes high-aimed for home,
they carry the clues of day
across their open, flying clothes.
Blade for blade,
steel for grass,
they flog the wire
with a hungry denim run.
Black shin hair stares
boar-bristled red
out from rips of hinged-tight jeans.
Tobacco sippin' voices
seep coarse through gapped teeth
like hot wax from upside-down brown candles.
An evening shadow sinks itself
into the open field,
closing it for night.
The copper cold dust
from spun home trucks
relaxes into dew
and paints itself across the wiregrass
that sleeps in rust
beneath a hush of moon.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Review of A Wiregrass Witness
- WiregrassLive.com - Citizen-driven news and messages
- WiregrassNews.com - Collection of News from the Wiregrass area
- Wiregrass.com
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