Dothan

Another city that I have recently been to is Dothan, Alabama. This year was my first time truly going to the city instead of just driving through it to get to the beach. And it is a neat little town. Not too big and not too small.

The land that Dothan is on was once had a sort of spring. And, so, when the settlers came through, after they found the spring, they named the area “Poplar Head”. The settlers found the land to be good for farming so they moved onto it.

The Indians that had already inhabited the area were eventually forcibly moved out and the people of the area were all white settlers. They successfully harvested the timber that grew there. By the Civil War, “Poplar Head” had pretty much been completely abandoned. But the town started having regrowth about twenty years later.

With the re-growing of the town came a new name. “Poplar Head” was already the name of a town in northern Alabama so they had to come up with a new name. And in 1885 they agreed on Dothan. Which comes from the name of a city in the Bible. Where Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers.

Dothan was able be put on the first train route in the region. Which brought more people and an increase in crop sales in the area. The crop of cotton was added as well. But that crop was destroyed when the boll weevil outbreak came through. So the farmers then moved to peanuts.

One fourth of the peanut crop in America is not grown about 75 miles away from Dothan, Alabama. Which brought on the well-known Peanut Festival to Dothan. Which is usually a two- week long fall festival that is enjoyed by people of all ages from both Dothan and other cities in the state. And even people out of state. Dothan actually has the nickname of “The Peanut Capital of the World”.

As the city grew, an airport was built in the 60s and the city started having colleges built in the area as well. It is home to Wallace Community College, which was built in 1969, and the Troy University Dothan campus, which was built in 1961.

It is an interesting little city that I would truly love to explore more in the future. And since the town is less than an hour away from Troy, it would be an easy place to get to!