[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 41 (Wednesday, April 9, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E610]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




REMEMBERING A PIECE OF AMERICAN HISTORY: ALABAMA'S HISTORIC BURNT CORN 
                              POST OFFICE

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                           HON. TERRY EVERETT

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 9, 1997

  Mr. EVERETT. Mr. Speaker, today I call attention to a little known 
occurrence that brings to a close a 179-year-old chapter in American 
and Alabama history. I'm speaking of the closing of the historic Burnt 
Corn Post Office in rural Conecuh County, AL.
  On this day, the Burnt Corn Post Office stamps its last letter. 
Looking like a scene from a Norman Rockwell painting, the small, single 
window, wood-paneled post office, tucked away in the corner of a 
general store in Burnt Corn has become a local landmark. But it is more 
than just a relic, it is a link to America's adventurous past.
  Located on what was once known as the Federal Road, the Burnt Corn 
Post Office was first established in 1817 and served weary travelers on 
their way to America's growing western frontier.
  According to the Conecuh Countian, Burnt Corn was first mentioned in 
the acts of Congress establishing post roads, authorizing a post road 
from ``Fort Mitchell, by Fort Bainbridge, Fort Jackson, Burnt Corn 
Spring, Fort Claiborne and the town of Jackson to St. Stephens.''
  When it was created, the Burnt Corn Post Office was located along a 
route from Washington City, by way of Athens, GA to New Orleans in the 
new Louisiana Territory.
  The Burnt Corn Post Office possibly served many famous persons, among 
them Francis Scott Key, Andrew Jackson, and Vice President Aaron Burr 
while on their official travels.
  The Burnt Corn Post Office, once a vital communications link for 
frontier travelers of the 19th century, is now destined for the history 
books. It is a time capsule from a simpler and more adventurous past 
when horseback riders and stagecoaches conveyed citizens of an 
ambitious adolescent republic called the United States of America.

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