The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-16
REMARK E DEPOSITS IN BLUFF AT CLAIBORNE
Its Bud Shells That
 n Tertiary
BY DIR. EUGENE ALLEN SMITH.

BY DIR. EUGENE ALLEN SMITH.
 There is probably no place in Ala bafna richer in historical memories than the old town of Claiborne. on the Alabama river.
 Like so many of the earlier settle ments made at a time when the rivers were the main lines of travel and es- pecially of transportation for heavy freight, Claiborne Is built upon broad. fiat river terrace. An almost perpendicular bluff 160 to ls0 feet high, overlooks the river, and from its brink one has a far-reaching view of the wide. rich, highly cultivated planta- lions of the fowlands on the opposite side, a view which one might seek far and wide to match for beauty. From two warehouses; situated on the edge of -this bluff, long inclines go down to the river. Down these the cotton bales slide to the boats below, while tram carries the other freight, and at the side of the incline 6 long dight of steps, 365 in number, they say one Is for each day of the year, affords the only means by which the passengers may go to and from the boats.
 Named for General Claiborne Claiborne, the County seat of Mon roe County from 1819 to 1882, gets It's name from a fort built here tn 1S1S by General F. l.. Claiborne and named in his honor. It became a distributing
 
 time one of the most important towns in Alabama with a population of 2,h0O.
 Near the mouth of Randon's Creek a few miles below Claiborne,l occurred the 'canoe fight" celebrated in Ala bama history, in which Captain Sam Dale, Jeremiah Austill, James Smith. and a negro man fought nine Indian warriors with cIubbed rifles, killed them all. and rowed ashore; all in plain sight of many soldiers on the banks, who could render them no as- sistance.
 In Claiborne have dwelt many men whose names are prominent in the an- nals of the State; men eminent In ev- cry profession and occupation: among them such men as Judge Charles Tait, the first Federal Judge of Alabama, app pointed in 1S19 and resigned in 1923; Arthur P. Bagby, lawyer. State Rep resentative and Senator, Speaker of the House. Governor of the State and Uni- ted States Senator: James Deliet, law yer, member of the State Legislature, and Speaker of the House and Member of Congress; A.. B. Cooper, lawyer, member of the State Legislature and of the Constitutional Convention of 1865; Enoch Parsons, lawyer and partner of A. B. Cooper: W. P. Leslie, also law partner of Cooper and Parsons; N. A. Agee, who read law in the office of this firm and was afterwards State Repre-
 
 Mir. Agee had his home in later years at Perdue Hill near Claiborne, untI quite recently when he came to Selma to be with his son.
 Like many another river town, Clai- borne has seen it's best days; most of it's former citizens or their descend~ ants have moved away, some to the new town of Perdue Hill. on the next higher terrace a few miles away some to cities and towns in other parts of the State. The handsome residences ana the public buildings of the olden times are fast falling einto decay, where they have not disappeared entirely, so that the present town of Claiborne bears only faint likeness to it's pro- totype.
 BeautffuH Fossil Shells. But apart from this historical inter est Claiborne has another attraction which has drawn to 1t some of the most eminent geologists not only of America