Boll Weevil Monument, Smallest City Block seen on trip to Dothan, Ala.

Boll Weevil Monument.

Like a lot of folks from the Evergreen area, I rode over to Dothan on Saturday to watch Hillcrest High School’s basketball teams play in the regional tournament at the Dothan Civic Center.

If you drive east on U.S. Highway 84, it’s pretty much a straight shot from Evergreen to Dothan. I left the house around one o’clock Saturday and eased my way along Highway 84. A couple of hours later, I found myself in Enterprise and got to thinking about the somewhat famous Boll Weevil Monument located in downtown Enterprise.

As best that I could remember, I’d never seen this monument in person, so I pulled into a gas station for a Coke and to look up the monument’s location on my phone. A few minutes later, thanks to Google Maps, I found the monument and parked just up the street for a closer look.

This monument is located at the intersection of Main Street and College Street, which is a pretty busy intersection. When I got out of my truck, I noticed a historical marker on the corner and walked over to read it first. According to that marker, the boll weevil monument was erected on Dec. 11, 1919 “in profound appreciation of the Boll Weevil and what it has done as the Herald of Prosperity, this monument was erected by the Citizens of Enterprise, Coffee County, Alabama.”

'Smallest City Block in the World'

Many of you will remember from Alabama History class that the boll weevil showed up in Alabama in 1915 and ruined cotton crops all over the state, including here in Conecuh County. In response to this agricultural pest, the folks in Coffee County and in the “Wiregrass” part of the state starting planting peanuts instead of cotton, and this new crop resulted in prosperity for these farmers and their neighbors. The monument serves today as a reminder that adversity can sometimes serve as the catalyst for much brighter days ahead.

After five or 10 minutes, I got back in the truck and continued on toward Dothan. I eventually parked down the street from the civic center, and while walking toward the building, I encountered another unusual monument.

There in a small triangle-shaped wedge of grass at the intersection of North College Street and North Appletree Street sits a headstone-shaped marker that read: The Smallest City Block in the World is Marked by Camellia Garden Club – May 1, 1964.

Later, I read on the internet that this garden club erected this monument in 1964 after “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” designated this small triangle of grass as the world’s smallest city block several years before. This unusual location can also be found in the Guinness Book of World Records.

If you go there today, you’ll notice, in addition to the monument, that this small block is home to a stop sign, a yield sign and a street sign marking the intersection of North College and North Appletree streets.

In the end, I suppose there are a fair number of unusual attractions like this across Alabama, so the next time you find yourself on a long road trip, keep your eyes open because you might encounter one or more of them yourself.