Noccalula Falls Park is a 250-acre (101-ha) public park located in

Gadsden, Alabama Gadsden is a city in and the county seat of Etowah County in the U.S. state of Alabama. It is located on the Coosa River about northeast of Birmingham and southwest of Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is the primary city of the Gadsden Metropolitan ...

, United States. The main feature of the park is a 90-foot (27-m)

waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

Trails A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. The ...

wind through Black Creek Gorge past caves, an aboriginal fort, an abandoned dam, pioneer homestead, and

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

carvings. The park also features a

petting zoo A petting zoo (also called a children's zoo, children's farm, or petting farm) features a combination of domesticated animals and some wild species that are docile enough to touch and feed. In addition to independent petting zoos, many genera ...

mini-golf Miniature golf, also known as minigolf, mini-putt, crazy golf, or putt-putt, is an offshoot of the sport of golf focusing solely on the putting aspect of its parent game. The aim of the game is to score the lowest number of points. It is played ...

course, the

Gilliland-Reese Covered Bridge The Gilliland-Reese Covered Bridge, more simply known as Gilliland's Covered Bridge, is a locally owned wooden covered bridge that spans a small pond near Black Creek in Etowah County, Alabama, United States. It is located at Noccalula Falls Pa ...

(built 1899) and a replica 1863 C. P. Huntington train ride. Noccalula Falls Park was listed on the

Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage The Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage, commonly referred to as the Alabama Register, is an official listing of buildings, sites, structures, objects, and districts deemed worthy of preservation in the U.S. state of Alabama. These properties ...

on May 12, 1976. It was rated in 2017 as the best campsite in Alabama in a 50-state survey conducted by

Msn.com MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...

. The falls drop itself has been run successfully in whitewater

kayak A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is typically propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic word ''qajaq'' (). The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each se ...

s on multiple occasions, beginning in late November 2011 when three expert kayakers ran the drop. The water level was unusually high, permitting a deep enough pool to form at the base of the falls. Local law enforcement has since issued citations to paddlers for running the falls, as the state does not consider this stretch a state-owned water bottom. The Noccalula Falls Botanical Gardens displays over 25,000

azalea Azaleas are flowering shrubs in the genus ''Rhododendron'', particularly the former sections ''Tsutsusi'' (evergreen) and '' Pentanthera'' (deciduous). Azaleas bloom in the spring (April and May in the temperate Northern Hemisphere, and Octob ...

History

The name Noccalula probably derives from the Cherokee term ''ama uqwalelvyi,'' which translates roughly as "place where water thunders." A man named Faxon surveyed Noccalula Falls in 1859 and carved his name and date on the wall behind the waterfall. In the second half of the 19th century, the Gadsden Land and Improvement Company operated a tavern and dance hall in a cave behind the waterfall; attempting to increase the flat area inside using dynamite led to a cave-in. Most of the park is on land once owned by R. A. Mitchell, a former mayor of Gadsden, who bought 169 acres in 1909 and intended it to become a city park. His daughter Sadie Mitchell Elmore inherited it and offered it to the city for $50,000 in 1940; after an election approving the purchase, the city finally bought the land in 1946 for $70,000, and additional acreage in 1959. Improvements started in 1950. R. A. Mitchell Elementary School is located across the street from the falls.

Statue and legend

Above Noccalula Falls is a nine-foot-tall bronze statue of a young

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

woman, Noccalula, who, according to local legends, plunged to her death after being ordered by her father to marry a man she did not love. The legend is very similar to

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

's Winona story as well as events from

James Fenimore Cooper James Fenimore Cooper (September 15, 1789 – September 14, 1851) was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical romances depicting colonist and Indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought h ...

's ''

The Last of the Mohicans ''The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757'' is a historical romance written by James Fenimore Cooper in 1826. It is the second book of the ''Leatherstocking Tales'' pentalogy and the best known to contemporary audiences. '' The Pathfinder ...

''. The statue is the work of

Suzanne Silvercruys Baroness Suzanne Silvercruys (married names Suzanne Farnam, Suzanne Stevenson; May 29, 1898 – March 31, 1973) was a Belgian-American sculptor and political activist, founder and first president of the Minute Women of the U.S.A. Life and career ...

and was dedicated in September 1969; it was paid for by a fund-raising drive by the Gadsden Woman's Club that included school children collecting pennies. Although no peer-reviewed historic journals have evaluated the veracity of the legend, at least one independent researcher has published evidence suggesting that the story is

apocryphal Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...

In the arts

Music

* "The Legend of Princess Noccalula" is a 2006 tone-poem for mandolin and orchestra by American composer

John Craton John Douglas Craton (born August 6, 1953) is an American classical composer. His works have been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan. While his compositions cover a diverse range, he is best known for his operas, ballets, and ...

. * "Noccalula" is a 2012 lo-fi/folk song by Alabama-native Katie Crutchfield under the

Waxahatchee Waxahatchee is an American indie music project, formed in 2010 by American singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield (born 4 January 1989), previously a member of P.S. Eliot. The band is named after Waxahatchee Creek, in Alabama, where Crutchfield g ...

project.

History

Statue and legend

In the arts

Music

See also