Noccalula Falls Park, Botanical garden and waterfall park in Gadsden, United States.
Noccalula Falls Park covers 250 acres in Gadsden, Alabama, and is named for its main feature: a 90-foot waterfall where Black Creek pours in a single broad sheet over a flat, dark gray, horizontally layered rock ledge into a shadowed gorge. Trails wind through Black Creek Gorge past caves, an aboriginal fort, an abandoned dam, a pioneer homestead and Civil War carvings. The park also holds botanical gardens, a petting zoo, a mini-golf course, the 1899 Gilliland-Reese Covered Bridge and a replica 1863 C. P. Huntington train ride.
R.A. Mitchell acquired roughly 169 acres in 1909 and made it available for public use. The city bought the property in 1946 following a community vote and expanded it over the years into a larger park.
A bronze statue standing nine feet tall, created by Suzanne Silvercruys, shows Princess Noccalula and recalls the Cherokee story of her fatal leap. The park's name preserves this local tale tied to the indigenous past of the region.
Trails run through Black Creek Gorge past caves, an aboriginal fort, an abandoned dam, a pioneer homestead and Civil War carvings. The Gilliland-Reese Covered Bridge, built in 1899, stands in the park, and a replica 1863 C. P. Huntington train gives rides. The bronze statue of Noccalula is set on a rock outcrop beside the top of the falls.
Faxon surveyed the falls in 1859 and carved his name and the date on the wall behind the falling water. In the late 19th century the Gadsden Land and Improvement Company ran a tavern and dance hall in the cave there; dynamiting to widen the floor caused a cave-in.
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