Friday, December 7, 2007 - Foscue Creek Park, Demopolis AL
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Foscue Creek, Demopolis AL, December 12, 2007
Me being me, I chose the one farthest from town, went off 10 miles the wrong way, turned around and finally found the one, Forkland Park 12 miles from town - only to find, contrary to it's web site, it is closed for the winter. I hate it when that happens. Oh well, back to town I go - to the one, Foscue Creek Park, a mere 3 miles from the Wal-Mart I just left. This turns out to be a beautiful park, nicely landscaped, full hook-ups, a coin laundry, and I site where I can almost literally hang the rear picture windows of LD right out over the water. With my Golden Age Passport discount I get all that for a mere $9.00 a night. A nice find.
All was not lost on my ride out to Forkland Park. The ride took me through a bit of the rural south I hadn't experienced yet - some small cypress swamps and rural mobile homes perched atop concrete block columns to keep them safely above flood waters. Some of those columns are 6 feet high and look rather unstable. Then there is the absolutely fabulous field full of Jim Bird's hay creations.
Night camp
Site 22 - Foscue Creek Campground, Demopolis AL
- This is a well maintained US Army Corps of Engineers campground with level paved sites, most with full hookups
- Many sites overlook the water of the inlets off Demopolis Lake on the Tombigbee River
- There is good biking on the park roads
- The campground is pretty full Thanksgiving week and is generally booked solid the weekend of the Demopolis Christmas on the River festival in early December.
- Poor Verizon cell phone service - access is via Extended Network, roaming
- No Verizon EVDO service - access is via the Extended Network and service varies is slow but reliable
- Only 3 miles to Wal-Mart and other services in Demopolis AL
- Find other references to Foscue Creek
- List the nights I've camped here
- Check the weather
- Reserve a site
- Get a map
The Heliograph in the Apache Wars
"The mountains and the sun...were made his allies, the eyes of his command, and the carriers of swift messages. By a system of heliograph signals, communications were sent with almost incredible swiftness; in one instance a message traveled seven hundred miles in four hours. The messages, flashed by mirrors from peak to peak of the mountains, disheartened the Indians as they crept stealthily or rode swiftly through the valleys, assuring them that all their arts and craft had not availed to conceal their trails, that troops were pursuing them and others awaiting them. The telescopes of the Signal Corps, who garrisoned the rudely built but impregnable works on the mountains, permitted no movement by day, no cloud of dust even in the valleys below to escape attention. Little wonder that the Indians thought that the powers of the unseen world were confederated against them."