Scottsboro
is a city in Jackson County, Alabama, United States, and is included in
the Huntsville-Decatur Combined Statistical Area. As of the 2000 census,
the population of the city is 14,762. Named for its founder Robert Scott,
the city is the county seat of Jackson County.
Scottsboro is famously the
home to the Unclaimed Baggage Center. This center sells articles of unclaimed
and undeliverable airline luggage whose owners the air lines cannot locate.
The Center ends up with such items as electronics, clothing, and any other
item that might be found in lost airline luggage. The prices are low and
the offerings eclectic enough to attract visitors from other states, and
even from other parts of the world who make their way to Scottsboro to
see what others have lost. The Unclaimed Baggage Center has been featured
several times in the media, including in the The Wall Street Journal, Vogue
Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, Good Morning America, The Washington Post,
The Dallas Morning News, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Baltimore
Sun, The Seattle Times and the travel/adventure television series Globe
Trekker. Of course, it is not to be thought that the airlines are making
any kind of "killing" on the sale of this "free" stock in trade, since
undoubtedly they paid the owners in question handsomely for not being able
to match this luggage to them.
Also,
on the old Memphis and Charleston Railroad near the public square, the
freight depot still stands. Built in 1856, it is considered the oldest
standing structure in the original city limits. During the Civil War, Union
raiders and Confederate soldiers fought in a skirmish, which ended up with
bullet holes in the brick walls and wooden cargo doors. The structure is
currently being restored.
First Monday has been a major
draw for over one hundred years, perhaps since 1870. In the old Southern
style, First Monday is a trade day (or flea market) in which people set
up stalls, sell homemade wares, and generally have a good time.
Payne's Soda Shop, located
on the Courthouse Square, has been in business since 1869. The small, yet
elegant, shop shows off a 1950s-themed design, offering the classic malt,
and it even sports extremely rare photographs of
King Caldwell Park is situated
near downtown Scottsboro, right next to the Library and across the street
from the Police Department. It is largely wooded, with several nature trails
running through it. It offers picnic tables, a pavilion with rest rooms
and a playground. It is the home of Art Sunday, which is an arts and crafts
festival that Scottsboro holds the Sunday before Labor Day each year. Many
exhibitors and thousands of people attend this festival each year. The
King Caldwell Park is named after Scottsboro native and philanthropist,
David King Caldwell, who went by the name "King Caldwell". He moved to
Tyler, Texas, where he became an oil tycoon and founded the Caldwell Zoo.
However, he never forgot his Scottsboro roots. He constantly gave generously
to local causes in Scottsboro and paid for the higher education of many
Scottsboro school children. He is still fondly remembered in Scottsboro
for having gone to his namesake Caldwell School in Scottsboro and giving
every child in the school a shiny new quarter, at a time when that was
a lot of money for a child to receive.
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