Dothan Alabama
“The Peanut Capital of the World“
Houston County Courthouse in Dothan Alabama by Christopher Hollis
Dothan Alabama, in the southeast corner of the state, is a hub of commerce with an interesting and rich history. Its name derives from Genesis 37:17: “let us go to Dothan.”
In addition to the area producing almost one quarter of the total peanut crop of the United States, the Dothan area serves much of the commercial transportation of the country by connecting parts of Georgia, Florida and Alabama.
Dothan is the County seat of Houston County Alabama and is 20 miles west of the Georgia state line and 18 miles north of the Florida state line.
Dothan Alabama History
In the late 1700s and 1800s, horse and ox-drawn covered wagons from Charleston, Savannah, and Jacksonville, creaked and groaned across the south as pioneer families searched for a place to build new homes and to start a new life. Those pioneers who passed through the vast pine forests in the southeast corner of the territory that was to later become the state of Alabama would often stop at a spring known as Poplar Head, where they would camp for a while and rest. Most of those early travelers believed that the sandy soil which nurtured the thick pine forests would not be suitable for farming, so they moved on.
Poplar Head, named for the poplar trees that encircled the glade where the cool water, or “head” (as springs were often called) welled from the earth, was where ancient Indian trails met, crossed, and then continued on. The glade where the spring was located was often used by Indians from the various tribes of the Creek Confederacy as a meeting place and as a campground. In the 1830s a fort existed on the Barber Plantation, 10 or 12 miles east of Poplar Head, where the settlers from the surrounding town and hamlets could go when they felt threatened by the Indians. By 1840 the Indian wars in Alabama were over and the fort soon disappeared.
Dothan Alabama Things To Do
- Dothan Area Botanical Gardens
- Adventureland
- Antique Attic
- Wiregrass Museum of Art
- Water World
- George Washington Carver Interpretive Museum
- Murals of the Wiregrass
- World’s Smallest City Block
- Landmark Park
Dothan Alabama Attractions
Dothan Alabama Zip Codes
- 36301
- 36302
- 36303
- 36304
- 36305