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The
Boll Weevil
Copyright © All rights reserved
By Ken Chapman, Ph.D.
Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc.
The City of Enterprise, Alabama has a strong history of growth and progress.
Its diversity of people, occupations, lifestyles, and interests come together
to produce the community spirit that has been passed down for generations.
The founder of Enterprise, John Henry Carmichael, moved to Coffee
County and settled the area in 1861. Carmichael built a small store on what
is now North Main Street. In 1882, as others moved to the area, the post
office was moved and located about five miles north of Carmichael’s new
community. Enterprise was incorporated in 1896 with a population of 250. Two
years later, the Alabama Midland Railway Company located in Enterprise and
with it came growth and progress. By 1906, the population grew to 3,750.
Because early residents believed so much in their own town, they had a battle
cry in the form of a banner stretched across Main Street — “Pull for
Enterprise or pull out.”
The town’s progress was threatened, however, in 1915 as
the Mexican boll weevil found its way into Alabama from Texas and wreaked
havoc on the cotton crop. In Coffee County, almost sixty percent of the
cotton production was destroyed that year. Farmers faced bankruptcy and the
area economy was at stake. Farmers turned to peanuts and other crops to
overcome the damage brought by the boll weevil. By 1917, Coffee County,
Alabama, produced and harvested more peanuts than any other county in the
nation.
In gratitude for the lessons learned, residents erected
the world’s only monument to an agricultural pest — the boll weevil monument.
The monument dedicated on December 11, 1919, stands in the center of the
downtown at the intersection of Main Street and Column Street.
The boll weevil monument is a symbol of humankind’s
willingness and ability to adjust to adversity. The base of the monument is
inscribed, “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
Coffee County, Alabama.
There is, I suppose, a boll weevil or two in every
professional life. Each of us, just like the citizens of Enterprise, has to
decide whether our boll weevil will be a disaster or an opportunity.
For more information about Ken
Chapman and Associates’ Leadership Development Programs, contact Ken Chapman
at 205.366.0265 or email Ken at
kchapman@leaderscode.com.
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