I've known about this random group of structures in Elberta, Alabama for some time now and we finally checked it out yesterday.
With no explanatory signs, no signs or promotional advertising, no commercial
Bamahenge is an enigma. Others, like us, ask the question "how did it get here? Who built it and why?" (People ask those questions about Stonehenge in England, too).
But unlike prehistoric Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England from the Neolithic and Bronze Age are
two miles west of Amesbury with their standing stones, each13 feet high, seven feet wide, and weighing around 25 tons, their much newer. These same size replicas in the woods of Alabama, which look very much like their English cousins are actually made of fiberglass. It was constructed here by billionaire dairy magnate George W. Barber, of Barber marina, and there's an interesting history of how that happened.
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In 1991, Barber had commissioned Virginia artist Mark Cline of Enchanted Castle Studios to design and install seven life-size dinosaurs
as lawn ornaments on one of his properties. While Cline was onsite repairing hurricane damage to those sculptures in 2006, Barber, asked him to build a life-size Stonehenge replica at his Vintage Motorsports Museum outside of Birmingham, AL. However by the time Cline was able to begin work on the project in 2012, Barber had relocated four of the dinosaurs to the grounds of Barber Marina and decided to instead install the Stonehenge replica on the marina grounds, in the woods just north of the dinosaurs.
While these replica stones are made of fiberglass, surprisingly hollow sounding when my daughter tapped on their sides, they were
engineered to be storm-proof, anchoring the megaliths with interior concrete and half-buried telephone poles, clever.
I have read quite a bit about Stonehenge over the years and, like many others, have been facinated by the mystery of their origins so since I haven't had the chance to travel to England this is the next best thing right here near my humble home. There's a pull off on the right side of the road with a small gravel parking area for 3-4 cars, but again no signs, and since it's approximately 200 yards off the road you have to be looking out for it. (we passed right by and had to turn around :-) The dinosaurs are a little further down the road and there's a beautiful marble fountain and huge steel spider at the marina itself at the end of the very nicely maintained roadway.
How to find all of this? Take US Hwy 98 either eight miles east of Foley, AL, or 21 miles west of Pensacola, FL. Turn south onto County Rd 95. Drive five miles. Turn right onto Fish Trap Rd. Drive a half-mile. Turn left at the Barber Marina sign. Drive 2.5 miles to the Barber Marina.
Bottom line: Like the world's largest frying pan or ball of yarn it's one of those road warrior and travelers oddities only way cooler! Plus it's all for free, check it out!! read more