Lee County
SEE THE BIRDS
Check Auburn University’s Raptor Center during one of its on-site flight programs. The center also treats birds and releases them back into the wild. You can also see birds at the Opelika Wood Duck Heritage Preserve and Siddique Nature Park, a 73-acre wetland that’s on the state birding trail.
SEE THE TIGERS
Visit Jordan-Hare Stadium for football or honor basketball and gymnastics greats at Neville Arena/Lovelace Hall of Honor. More than 130 Auburn athletes and coaches are honored on the Tiger Trail of Auburn downtown.
SEE THE OTHER ANIMALS
Kreher Preserve and Nature Center, a 110-acre preserve operated by the university, has birding trails, reptile viewing area, butterfly garden and a pond, stream and waterfalls.
PLAY IT YOURSELF
Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail at Grand National – Opelika offers two 18-hole championship courses and one renowned short course. This site was proclaimed by Jones as the “single greatest site for a golf course” he had ever seen.
VISIT HISTORY
Drive or walk through the Opelika Northside Historic District to see beautifully restored turn-of-the-century homes or stop by the 1920-era Opelika Train Depot. Also in Opelika, adjacent to the courthouse, is the Museum of East Alabama with thousands of artifacts and memorabilia.
PARK IT
Auburn and Opelika area parks offer a wide variety of opportunities for fun. Spring Villa Park in Opelika includes an antebellum home, hiking and biking and other sports in its 350 acres. Chewacla State Park includes a lake, hiking and biking trails, camping and more on 696 acres. Kiesel Park, with nature and walking trails and an environmental lab on its 124 acres, is also home to the Nunn-Winston house, one of Auburn’s finest examples of antebellum Greek revival architecture dating from the 1850s. And Opelika Municipal Park is home to the famed Rocky Brook Rocket, a vintage miniature train designed to carry passengers around the park. The Salem-Shotwell Covered Bridge is also here.
ENJOY THE ARTS
Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Arts at Auburn features permanent, traveling and temporary exhibitions of international, national and regional focus, with programs that offer insight into the works. One of the outstanding features is the entry rotunda’s 1,000-lb. blown glass chandelier sculpture created by famed glass artist Dale Chihuly. Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center provides visual and performing arts opportunities ranging from exhibitions to community theatre to ballroom dancing. On campus, the Gogue Performing Arts Center is the city’s newest performance space.
Russell County
ENJOY THE RIVERFRONT
Phenix City Riverwalk, along the western bank of the Chattahoochee River, starts at the amphitheater, meanders past the river-crossing footbridge to Georgia, and provides views of the river’s whitewater activities.
HONOR A CULTURE
The Chattahoochee Indian Heritage Center recounts the history of the Creek Nation and the Trail of Tears on the nation’s former homeland.
WONDER AT IT
The Museum of Wonder is filled with Southern folks art. Next door, The Possum Trot is the site of storytelling and auctions.
VISIT HISTORY
Fort Mitchell Historic Site features historic carriages, along with an 1813 fort, restored log home and museum. Beside is the Fort Mitchell National Cemetery, one of the 130 national cemeteries. The National Infantry Museum displays more than 70,000 artifacts from the last 240 years of American military history. The old Seale Russell County Courthouse, built in 1868, features Indian artifacts and paleontology. The Jones Museum in Smiths Station mixes local train history with Conway Twitty memorabilia.
ARTS ABOUND
Sarah West Gallery of Fine Art in Smiths Station and the Phenix City Art Center offer classes, activities and more to help visitors appreciate the arts.
ZOOM
East Alabama Motor Speedway hosts Late Model, Limited Late Model, Hobby, Bomber and Road Warrior Class races on its dirt oval.
PARK IT
Idle Hour Park & Moon Lake feature a lake, walking trail, nature trail and water play.
TAKE A HIKE
In Crawford, try the walking trail and the Tuckabatchee Masonic Lodge, built in 1848 and restored in 2012.
FORE!
Lakewood Golf Course is a recently renovated John LaFoy-designed, 18-hole public golf course in Phenix City.
Macon County
LIFT A GLASS
Whippoorwill Vineyards is a family-owned and operated farm winery.
REMEMBER THE AIRMEN
Moton Field was the only primary flight facility for African-American pilot candidates in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II.
CONSIDER THE HISTORY
The Tuskegee History Center is home to the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center, sharing the story of the county’s three distinct cultures and peoples. Little Texas Tabernacle has hosted camp meetings since the 1850s. Built by black and white settlers, the original structure was made of hand-hewn timbers, wooden pegs, hand-split shingles and sawdust floors. In the Shiloh Community in Notasulga, see the Shiloh School, the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church and the Shiloh Cemetery.
HONOR THE GREATS
Tuskegee includes tributes to great leaders with roots here. You can visit The Oaks — home of Booker T. Washington — and his grave on the Tuskegee University campus. At Tuskegee, you can also visit the grave of famed botanist George Washington Carver. And nearby is the birthplace of Civil Rights activist Rosa Parks.
GET OUTDOORS
Tuskegee National Forest lets you hike and bike among the wildflowers, flowering trees and wildlife habitat. At Lake Tuskegee, enjoy the 92-acre lake with fishing, sailing and waterskiing. Nearby are Abbott and Henderson parks, both offering swimming, tennis, basketball, baseball and more.
This article appears in the December 2023 issue of Business Alabama.
