It’s always sad when you hear about your city and its great history being shipped away brick-by-brick.

When abandoned or dilapidated old factories and buildings start to crumble and no one has the funds to restore them, the owners ship parts of local homes after being sold. They are shipped to decorators in Atlanta and families renovating farmhouses in New York. Pieces of our homes leave brick-by-brick and it is safe to say we will never get them back.

But where the city is losing history in one part of town we want to commend the city and government leadership for putting an end to treasures leaving our river.

The city is now entering phase one of the Alabama Historical Commission Maritime Study of Underwater Resources in the Alabama River.

Licensed divers will go and retrieve any historical artifacts underwater. This will prevent amateurs from taking to the waters of the river and making off with treasures that could be on display for educational and historical branding purposes in Selma. People like Selma Mayor Evans are hoping the survey will uncover Civil War artifacts because The Foundry in Selma was so close to the river — one of the main weaponries for the Confederate Army in the South.

The survey will most likely be done in three phases according to experts in the related field.

The first phase that will begin shortly will be mostly mapping and using remote sensing technology to see what our Alabama River has to offer. Once that is completed, the treasure hunting will begin.

We are proud our city has begun the bidding process for phase one because it shows our government leaders want to put their money where all their talk is — about creating more venues for tourism and preserving history in Selma.

There are so many wonderful treasures to be found in our section of the Alabama River and we are anxious to know those treasures are safe in a city museum or on display for classrooms.

It would be devastating to keep losing history we haven’t even discovered yet and for that we are thankful Mayor Evans and others decided to move forward with this preservation.