History - Fort Rucker - (Renamed) Fort Novosel, AL
Fort Rucker, once known as Camp Rucker is our community focal point. The history of Fort Rucker provides us an insight of the first troops to train at Camp Rucker. They were the 81st (Wildcat) Infantry Division who were preparing for combat in World War II.
After the onset of World War II, the United States (U.S) War Department decided to add a number of new post/bases. Fort Rucker (situated on 58,000 acres (235 km) of sub-marginal farmland, and formerly a wildlife refuge) was opened the 1st of May in 1942 as "Camp Rucker" and had quarters for 3,280 Officers and 39,461 Enlisted Personnel. It was deactivated following the war, then reopened during the Korean War. After another short deactivation, it was again reopened and expanded when it became a helicopter training base. The name was changed to "Fort Rucker" in October 1955.
Fort Rucker is a U.S. Army post located mostly in Dale County, Alabama, United States. It was named for a Civil War officer, Confederate General Edmund Rucker. The post is the primary Flight Training base for Army Aviation and is home to the United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence (USAACE) and the United States Army Aviation Museum. Small sections of the post also lie in Coffee, Geneva, and Houston counties. Part of the Dale County section of the post is a census-designated place; its population was 4,636 at the 2010 census.
The main post has entrances from three (3) bordering cities, Daleville, Ozark and Enterprise. In the years before the September 11th, 2001 attacks, the main post (except airfields and other restricted areas) was an open post with unmanned gates allowing civilians to drive through. Following the attacks, this policy was changed, and the post is now closed to unauthorized traffic and visitors.
History - Daleville, AL
Daleville, originally known as "Dale's Court House", was founded circa 1830 by veterans of the Creek Indian War who had settled in Dale County following that conflict. It was the original county seat of Dale County but lost that honor when Coffee County split from Dale in 1841, at which time the seat was removed first to Newton, and then later to Ozark where it remains today.
History - Enterprise, AL
The founder of Enterprise, John Henry Carmichael, first settled there in 1881. Carmichael opened a store, which attracted more settlers to the area, and by the next year a post office was relocated from the settlement of Drake Eye to the north to Enterprise. Enterprise is a city in the southeastern part of Coffee and Dale Counties in the southeastern part of Alabama in the Southern United States. The population was 26,562 in the year 2010. Enterprise is famous for the Boll Weevil Monument, a large monument of a woman holding a boll weevil, which is located in the town square. The city erected the statue because the destruction of the cotton crop had led to agricultural diversity, starting with peanuts and more prosperity than had ever come from cotton alone. It is said to be the only statue to an insect pest in the world. Enterprise is also right outside of Fort Rucker, an Army post which is the home of Army Aviation.
History - Ozark, AL
The Ozark area was originally inhabited by the Creek Indians. It is said that Ozark received its name after a Traveller thought it reminded him of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. The first known European settler in Ozark was John Merrick Sr., a veteran of the Revolutionary War, in 1822. In honor of him, the town was named Merricks. It was later changed to Woodshop, which was its name when the town received its post office. The first appearance of the name Ozark was in 1855, when the citizens requested a name change.
