State, city team up to map Alabama River treasures
Published 10:32 pm Saturday, August 4, 2012
It is no debate Selma has many historical sites and even historic treasures left behind from a Civil War battle, but historians believe many historical artifacts that are historically valuable, are still submerged underwater and undiscovered. The greatest threat to those undiscovered artifacts is that people, other than historians, think so too.
And on the top of the list for those who would hunt for submerged artifacts is the stretch of the Alabama River near Selma.
“Divers were scavenging those areas with boats and are constantly diving out there,” Selma City Councilman Greg Bjelke said, talking of what got the ball rolling on protecting the Alabama River and declaring it as a historical site. “Finally someone blew the whistle and said ‘you have to stop.’ What we have down there is valuable, it’s historical and we need to preserve it.”
The U.S. Department of Interiors and the National Park Service have given the City of Selma a grant for protecting those submerged artifacts. The Maritime Study for Underwater Resources in Selma is a federally funded project the Department of Interiors handed to the Alabama Historical Commission who then gave the $13,160 to the City of Selma.
“What we are going to do is accomplish three things with this,” Bjelke said. “We are going to do an assessment of what’s down there and they will document it.”
He said they have projected this to be a yearlong process, but no bidding has started yet for the services. Ultimately the submerged artifacts, after their discovery and then recovery from the river, will be used for public education.
“They will review documents and existing studies about these submerged items,” Bjelke said. “They will use sonar and high-tech equipment and make a site map with all of this.”
Bjelke said the area was included on the list of Alabama Historical Places last year and now the city is seeking to have the area included on a list of national historical places, “which will further protect this area,” he said.