Tourist Attractions

Jesse Owens Museum and Park

In the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, a single man captured the attention of the world, winning 4 gold medals, an Olympic first. Sixty years later, thousands gathered to honor this man with the dedication of a park named in his honor, the Jesse Owens Memorial Park. Dedicated on June 29, 1996 with the arrival of the Olympic torch on its journey to the Atlanta games, the Jesse Owens Memorial Park is a tribute to the Olympic track and field superstar.

The park located in Oakville, Alabama showcases several memorials for Owens including a museum, statue, 1936 torch replica, birth home replica and an oak tree of the same variety as Owens’ gold medal tree. Our goal is to honor the life and accomplishments of this remarkable man and to mirror Owens’ dedication to America’s youth by investing in the community. The park provides facilities for community use such as a basketball court, baseball/softball fields, playground and picnic tables and pavilions. Park Directors and Board members are hopeful that one day funding will become available to complete the final phase of park development, the construction of an Olympic size track. This addition would make it possible to sponsor annual youth competition modeled after the ARCO/Jesse Owens games held in Phoenix, Arizona until 1994.

The museum, located in the park, immortalizes Owens’ memory by depicting the moments that made Owens great and portraying the people who shaped him as an athlete and as a man. Glass display cases showcase rare memorabilia including programs from the 1936 Olympics, replicas of track uniforms and shoes and medals and trophies from Owens’ high school days. In addition, interactive kiosks highlight Owens’ life, unparalleled athletic accomplishments and his humanitarian contributions to the larger world community.  Capturing Jesse Owens’ race to four gold medals, the museum houses a mini-theater showing Bud Greenspan’s 1966 film Return to Berlin. In it, Greenspan takes Jesse back to Berlin and the Olympic stadium, to narrate his experiences in the games. This forty-minute movie will captivate visitors of all ages.

For those interested in learning more about the life of Jesse Owens, the museum offers The Decatur Daily Resource Center. Equipped with computers, printers, internet access and a library of over 75 magazine and newspaper articles, visitors have the opportunity to do independent research into the life of Jesse Owens.

A gift shop is located inside the museum and offers a variety of souvenirs and educational materials. Visitors can purchase an assortment of books and DVD’s about Jesse Owens’ life and his accomplishments. Also available are Jesse Owens Museum logo clothing, whistles, lanyards, pencils, bookmarks, caps, key chains and more.

Oakville Indian Mounds Educational Center

Located in the southeastern portion of Lawrence County, Oakville Indian Mounds Park and Museum is shaded by the 180,000 acre William B. Bankhead National Forest and shares the treasures and remaining vestiges of the great Indian hunting grounds.  The Bankhead is encompassed by part of the Warrior Mountains, the western terminus of the Appalachian Mountains. With its prolific wildlife, waterfalls, caves and deep gorges, Bankhead is one of the Southeast’s premier sites for petroglyphs, prehistoric drawings and rock carvings. Indians hunted this area for some 12,000 years before the Europeans arrived. Oakville Indian Mounds Park (hereinafter referred to as the Park) is an educational, archeological, genealogical and sociological legacy to Lawrence County and North Alabama. Spanning a timeline of human occupation of over 14,000 years and a diversity of races and cultures, the Park preserves, protects, and presents artifacts dating as far back as 10,000 B.C. and ancient geological evidence of the settlement and evolution of the people of this region of Alabama. Creek (Muskogee), Yuchi (Uchean), Shawnee (Algonquin), Chickasaw (Muskogee), and Cherokee (Iroquoian) Indians were the five historic tribes to live in the Oakville area.

The center encompasses a Cherokee council house museum, a portion of the Black Warriors' Path, the largest Woodland ceremonial Indian mound in Alabama and a large Copena Indian burial mound. Visitors are welcome to Oakville year round and our park and museum have free admission. Enjoy our famous 5K cross country trail, free fishing in our lake, and visit our park for family fun.

Deer Run Golf Course

Three miles south of Moulton nestled against the Bankhead National Forest lies Deer Run Golf Course. This 18 hole Earl Stone design has proved to be very popular for over 30 years to locals and tourists alike. The course features large undulating bent-grass greens and Tifton Bermuda grass, fairways, tees, and roughs.

The course has 5 lakes, 30 bunkers, and a mixture of mountainous holes, flat holes, and water holes. Four sets of tees are available for golfers of all abilities, ranging from 5400 to 6800 yards. Come try this picturesque, player friendly course, and you are sure to want to come back soon.

Joe Wheeler State Park

Whether you arrive by land or water, there’s no mistaking the beauty and serenity of this 2,550-acre resort park. On the shores of Wheeler Lake, the resort features a stunning, waterfront lodge with restaurant and convention facilities, championship 18-hole golf course and clubhouse, full-service marina with permanent and overnight docking slips, modern and primitive camping, lakeside cottages, cozy cabins, and a rustic group lodge.

The park is divided by the Tennessee River, which forms the 69,700-acre Wheeler Lake. Bass, bream and catfish are plentiful in the sparkling waters where sailboats and yachts cruise side by side. Each fall, Joe Wheeler Resort State Park hosts the Fall Rendezvous of boaters traveling the Great Loop--the continuous waterway that circumnavigates the eastern portion of North America, along the Atlantic Seaboard, across the Great Lakes, through inland rivers and around the Gulf of Mexico. As many as 250 vessels dock at Joe Wheeler’s marina and attend the conference in the resort lodge, coordinated by the park’s professional meeting planners.

In addition to easy access to the Tennessee River, Joe Wheeler Resort State Park offers hiking and mountain biking trails that allow you to reconnect with nature and view some of the best scenery that north Alabama has to offer.

Pond Spring Museum and Joe Wheeler Historical Home

Pond Spring, the General Joe Wheeler Home is located in Lawrence County in north Alabama. The 50-acre site includes 12 historic buildings, gardens, and archaeological features that date back almost 5,000 years.

The main structure on the property is the post-Civil War home of Joseph Wheeler who was a Confederate lieutenant general, a U.S. congressman, a Spanish-American War general, and only one of two generals to achieve the rank of general in the U.S. army after the Civil War. The site gets its name from the large spring-fed pond located on the grounds.​

Blue Star Museum:  Pond Spring proudly offers free admission to active duty military personnel and their families between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

William Bankhead National Forest

The William B. Bankhead National Forest is one of Alabama's four National Forests, covering 181,230 acres (733 km2).  It is home to Alabama's only National Wild and Scenic River, the Sipsey Fork. It is located in northwestern Alabama, around the town of Double Springs. It is named in honor of William B. Bankhead, a longtime U.S. Representative from Alabama

Known as the "land of a thousand waterfalls", this National Forest is popular for hiking, horseback riding, hunting, boating, fishing, swimming, canoeing and more. Within the forest lies the Sipsey Wilderness, with a host of wildlife and an abundance of swift streams, limestone bluffs, and waterfalls. Native American relics abound in Bankhead, one of the Southern United States's premier sites for petroglyphs, prehistoric drawings, and rock carvings, at sites such as the Kinlock Shelter.

The forest is headquartered in Montgomery, as are all four of Alabama's National Forests. The other National Forests in the state are Conecuh, Talladega, and Tuskegee. There are local ranger district offices located in Double Springs.  

The Bankhead National Forest might be considered a multi-camping experience forest. Camping opportunities range from primitive, dispersed camping (found throughout the Forest) to the full hook- up, RV-focused Corinth campground located on Lewis Smith Lake near Double Springs, AL. Brushy Lake campground, adjacent to a small, very picturesque lake, is a more "traditional" National Forest campground offering a fire-ring, table, communal water spigots and a level space under mature hardwood and pine trees to pitch a tent.  

The Bankhead National Forest may not have the "excellent" fishing opportunities of some National Forests but the camping, hiking, biking and other recreational opportunities make up for any frustration experienced by the fisherman. The diversity of recreational activities and camping opportunities found in the Bankhead will make it a favorite for the one-time visitor or for everyone who visits time and time again.

Doublehead Resort

Doublehead Realty and Property Management is the on-site rental management company for The Cove at Doublehead Community. Doublehead Management is proud to offer a world-class family destination on the outstanding recreational waters of Wilson Lake. Embracing some 400 acres of woodland, the community complex wanders along a pine and hardwood covered peninsula where the mouth of Town Creek joins the Tennessee River at Wilson Lake. The Cove at Doublehead is the only community of its type on Wilson Lake’s 15,930 acres. Snug among the trees are 42 split-level cottages. All are waterfront with their own private pier, hammock, picnic table and charcoal grill. Materials for building the cottages, including the exposed beams inside and log columns on the porch, came from a stand of cedar trees found on the community’s site.

Each 1,400 square foot cottage features a large great room with a wood-burning fireplace, satellite TV, a well equipped kitchen, washer and dryer, three bedrooms, two baths and large rocking chairs on the water front porch.

From sunrise to long after sunset, there are countless reasons why families love vacations at The Cove at Doublehead Community.

North Alabama Birding Trail

The North Alabama Birding Trail (NABT) is not an actual physical trail; rather it is made up of 50 individual sites scattered throughout 11 counties in north Alabama. The sites range from simple roadside pull-offs, to short walking trails, to more remote locales accessed only by lengthy hikes or even canoes. Each site was selected for its birding opportunities, either for the number of bird species present or as a known haunt of a particularly rare or uncommon bird. The NABT was officially opened in 2005, joining the Alabama Coastal Birding Trail,which consists of sites along the Gulf Coast.

Landscapes in the North Alabama region range from tupelo swamps to blazing fields of wildflowers, and towering forests of oak and hickory to vast sheets of open water replete with loafing waterfowl.

As the habitats vary through the valley, so do the seasons. Spring is heralded by the return of neotropical songbirds that stop in while on their journey northward. Summer is filled with breeding woodland species such as flashy Pileated and Red-headed woodpeckers, boisterous Great-crested Flycatchers and Carolina Wrens, and skulking Kentucky and Swainson’s warblers. In the fall, migrant waterfowl, Sandhill Cranes, and a variety of raptors return to spend the winter in the valley, or at least pass through on their way farther south.

Once winter’s chill is in the air, large roosts of Bald Eagles form and stragglers from farther north can be found with the abundant waterfowl and gulls.  Visit North Alabama's beautiful Bird Trail and see the true beauty of nature here in North Alabama.

North Alabama Hallelujah Trail of Historic Churches

Sipsey Wilderness Area

The Sipsey Wilderness lies within Bankhead National Forest around the Sipsey Fork of the Black Warrior River in northwestern Alabama, United States. Designated in 1975 and expanded in 1988, 24, 922-acre (10,086 ha) Sipsey is the largest and most frequently visited Wilderness area in Alabama and contains dozens of waterfalls. It was also the first designated wilderness area east of the Mississippi River.

The wilderness consists of the low plateau of Brindlee Mountain which is dissected into a rough landscape by several creeks and rivers. Due to the layers of limestone and sandstone that make up the area, waterfalls are very common in the wilderness.  This feature has earned the wilderness the nickname "Land of 1000 Waterfalls."

The wilderness is in the Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests ecoregion. Much of the wilderness was once logged, but new growth forests have now taken hold in the logged areas. Some old-growth forests can also be found in the wilderness. The most significant are about 260 acres (110 ha) along Bee Branch Gorge and Buck Rough Canyon, which include old Eastern Hemlock, American Beech, Sweet Birch, White Oak, and Tulip Poplar.

WildSouth, a local organization in Moulton, Alabama promotes hiking in the Sipsey Wilderness.

Courtland Heritage Museum

The Town of Courtland, in conjunction with the Courtland Historical Association, established the Courtland Heritage Museum in 2009 to showcase the town and region's rich history. Dedicated to the collection, preservation and conservation of materials representative of Courtland's first 190 years, the museum features historical displays relating to area's agriculture, business, transportation, history and military.

252 College St, Courtland, Alabama; (256) 637-2710, (256) 355-7875  *  Only Open on Saturdays or by Scheduled Appointment 

The Museum contains exhibits on the 1st railroad west of the Appalachian Mountains, a book written in Courtland in 1832, the story of the Goliad (Texas) massacre in 1836, the battle of Courtland in 1862, the Courtland Army Air Force Base, Dinky Davis’ bicycle, and lots of other local history!

Courtland Historic Homes Tour

The character of a Southern town's heritage is captured in the historic district of Courtland, Alabama. Courtland offers a trip through the history of a 19th-century town. Reflecting the town's beginning as a local trade center rooted in the surrounding plantation economy are more than 100 homes, buildings and sites dating from 1820 to 1930. Courtland was named to the National Register of Historic Places for its 1818 development of the early town plan built with an unusually large concentration of significant buildings.

Built on a site that was formerly an Indian Village on Big Nance Creek, Courtland's location was chosen by planters from Virginia and the Carolinas who saw great potential in the fertile cotton land combined with market access to New Orleans by way of the Tennessee River. Based on these early roots, Courtland is one of the few places in Alabama where one can visit and experience architectural styles spanning nearly 175 years of history. Federal period architecture of the first 60 years of Courtland's development reflects the town's early ties to the influence and traditions of Virginia and the upper South. The late-1800 and early-1900s reflect the Victorian Colonial Revival, and bungalow styles ranging from large multi-story homes with wide sweeping verandas to cottage-style dwellings.

Municipal Parks and Youth Sports Facilities

Moulton Recreation Center * 13550 Court Street  Moulton, AL

Gymnasium: Full court competition gymnasium featuring 6 basketball goals, 1 regulation volleyball court, dressing rooms, a 40x30 stage, sound system, and telescoping bleachers that seat 500 people. Temperature controlled. Gymnasium is used for competition, basketball, volleyball, banquets, large meetings, pageants, concerts, health fairs, business fairs, and numerous other public events. Call for rental information.
Meeting Rooms: Features 2 20x20 rooms than may be used as 1 large room. Rooms feature a full service kitchen that can be used in conjunction with meeting rooms. Rooms are available for teas, showers, reunions, parties, or most any type meeting you might have in mind.
Racquetball Court: Features 1 full size climate controlled racquetball court, available to rent at $3 per hour.
Exercise Room: Features large weight tree, treadmills, aerobic bicycle, stepper, and dumbbells. Membership is $10.00 per month.
Hours of Operation:
Monday through Thursday: 7:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Fridays:7:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Saturdays:8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Sundays: 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
For more information, please call the center at 256-974-9333.

H.A. Alexander Park * 13550 Court Street  Moulton, AL

Features: 2 Baseball fields, 1 youth and 1 adult size, 2 275' softball fields, all featuring professionally groomed infield surfaces, and Tifton Bermuda grass outfields.
Alexander Park is host to all youth softball, baseball, T-Ball, Soccer leagues, along with hosting numerous tournaments annually. 
4 Newly refinished lighted tennis courts.
4900 foot crushed stone walking track.
Large playground designed for children of all ages.
Numerous practice fields and large open green areas.
60x30 pavilion.
4 batting cages.
For rental information, call 256-974-9333.

Alexander Mini-Park * Located on corner of Byler Road and College Street

10 acres of mature hardwoods, featuring a creek running through.
Large amphitheater, home to concerts and weekly “music in the park”.
10,000 feet of paved asphalt walking trails throughout.
20x16 pavilion.
Large shaded playground for children of all ages.
Numerous picnic tables, benches, and swings throughout the park.
Host of numerous festivals, reunions, cross country meets, concerts, and many more outdoor events.

Splash Pad * Located at the End of College St next to LCHS

Opened in 2010, the splash pad contains 7 features for young children to play and cool off in.
Open Memorial Day through Labor Day,
11:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m., 6 days a week
Free to all children who have an adult present.
The Splash pad will be closed each Tuesday for maintenance and private party rentals.
For Rental information, call 256-974-9333.

K.C. McKelvy Park * Located on the corner of Rosenwald and Petty Street

Features: 1 large pavilion, and 2 small ones.
Full length outdoor basketball court.
Playground for children of all ages.
2 baseball/softball fields with backstops.
Lighted 1300 foot asphalt walking trail.
For rental information, call 256-974-9333.

Moulton Courtyard * Located on corner of Market and Court Streets

Features a gazebo in a beautifully landscaped corner, ½ block from the courthouse.
Great place for a springtime lunch, special occasion pictures, or to go sit and admire the wonderful foliage. 
To reserve the Gazebo, call 256-974-5191.

Sports and Recreation Programs:

Baseball/Softball: working in conjunction with Moulton Dixie Youth, and Moulton Girls softball association, registration takes place in early February. Play starts in March, and continues through the month of June.
Tee-Ball: Open to boys and girls ages 5 or 6, registration takes place in May, and play in late June and July.
Soccer: Open to boys and girls ages 5- 13, registration takes place in early August, and play continues through October.
Basketball: Youth league is open to boys and girls, ages 6-12. Registration is in early November, and play takes place December until early February.
Basketball: An Adult slow break league is available, with registration in February, and play through the month of April.
Volleyball: An adult co-ed volleyball league is offered in January, with play continuing through April.

For more information on these and other leagues, call 256-974-9333.