AFRICATOWN’s Blueway Site #1 ” Lewis Landing” conducts Groundbreaking Ceremony

To God goes the glory as he sent to Africatown two Angels: National Park Service Ranger Liz Incer and Mobile County Commissioner Merceria Ludgood. For the past ten years Liz Incer has been assisting the Africatown Community with the planning and design of The Africatown Blueway as she extended her Technical Assistance Grant five times to insure the project was done right. Commissioner Ludgood has demonstrated her belief in the Africatown resident’s vision as she has constructed The Africatown Heritage House, The Africatown Hall & Food Bank, two new homes with five more on the way and now The Lewis Landing Park, the first Blueway tourist site to be developed with three more to be developed in the immediate waterway that surrounds Africatown. The other three sites are: The Historic Place of Baptism along Three Mile Creek where the churches baptized residents before they had inside pools, Clotilda Landing (under the bridge) along The Mobile River where the enslaved Africans first settled and Hog Bayou (the happy hunting grounds) where the enslaved Africans hunted & fished to feed themselves. A Blueway is a water trail that runs around or through a community. It is like a Walking Trail on the land, however it is on the water with various historic points of interests where kayakers and others on the water can stop and learn the history of that area. Africatown is surrounded on three sides by water, Hog Bayou and Chicasabogue Creek on the North, The Mobile River on the east and The Three Mile Creek to the South. Legend has it that Charlie Lewis paddled his boat west along Three Mile Creek after the civil war ended looking for land he could purchase and decided to purchase land at the intersection of Conception Street because it is the widest and deepest part with a depth of about 8 feet deep.