"Who has a flowing well in their downtown?" Mike Putman, executive director of Jasper Main Street, asked the Daily Mountain Eagle this summer. "Very few towns have this."
He was talking about the artesian well on Fourth Avenue, about a block behind Young Jewelers. Water has run there since the 1920s, and Main Street is now rebuilding the structure around it. The well is one piece of a larger pattern. Over the past year, a new museum, a sculpture trail, a trolley and the well restoration have turned downtown Jasper's history into something you can walk in one afternoon. When the Alabama Historical Association holds its Fall Pilgrimage here on October 23 and 24, its self-guided list reads like an inventory of that work.
You don't need a pilgrimage ticket to walk it. You only need to know where things are and when the doors open.
What the historians are coming to see
The pilgrimage is based at Jasper City Hall, 121 17th Street West. On Friday evening, Dr. Kari Frederickson will give a book talk and signing for Deep South Dynasty: The Bankheads of Alabama at Jasper First Methodist Church. A welcome reception follows at the Jasper Main Street Welcome Center & Museum. On Saturday, historian and collector Pat Morrison and folklorist Martha Parnell Salomaa present a local history program at City Hall. After lunch, visitors take self-guided tours of the Bankhead House & Heritage Center, the White House on Fifth Museum & Gallery, First Methodist, Temple Emanu-El and the Burton Building. There are also guided walks of the Historical Figures Sculpture Trail and trolley tours of the Walker County Arts Alliance mules. Details and registration are on the Alabama Historical Association's meetings page.
Look at how many of those stops are recent. Mayor Josh Gates described the Welcome Center as having "opened recently behind the Jasper First Methodist Church." The White House on Fifth opened this spring. The Daily Mountain Eagle called the sculpture trail "new" in June. The well is still being rebuilt. Of the downtown stops, the Bankhead House is the one that was already a museum before this year.
Gates put the idea plainly. "You've absolutely got to have a connector and just curate the experience as people come through," he said. The rest of this post walks through that connector, one stop at a time.
Start at 311 West 18th Street
The Jasper Main Street office and Welcome Center & Museum at 311 W. 18th St. is a natural first stop. Two sculptures stand there, Kris Merschat's coal cart and mule and Ajene Williams' bust of Clarence "Professor" White. The Alabama Historical Association's Fall 2026 newsletter describes White as a Selma native and a member of the 1936 Black National Championship football team. That same year he joined the Walker County Training School.
Ten pieces make up the trail. Jasper Main Street's StoryMap of the trail lists each one with its address and artist:
| Sculpture | Where it stands | Created by |
|---|---|---|
| Coal cart and mule | Jasper Main Street, 311 W. 18th St. | Kris Merschat |
| Clarence "Professor" White bust | Jasper Main Street, 311 W. 18th St. | Ajene Williams |
| George "Goober" Lindsey cap | First Baptist Prayer Garden, near 400 W. 17th St. | John Stewart Jackson |
| Railroad locomotive | Brown Building, 640 W. 19th St. | Ringo Lisko |
| Tulip poplar leaf with Smith Lake and bass | The Gates Loft, 1814 S. 3rd Ave. | Aaron Juarros |
| William B. Bankhead gavel | King Building, 1823 S. 3rd Ave. | University of Alabama sculpture students |
| Longleaf pine | West wall of The Cigar Box, 411 W. 19th St. | Birmingham Sculpture |
| Mule collar | Corner of Los Reyes Grill, 1801 S. 2nd Ave. | University of Alabama sculpture students |
| Creek Indian Head | 19th Street East at Town Creek | University of Alabama sculpture students |
| Carl Elliott bookmobile | Carl Elliott Library, 98 E. 18th St. | Joe McCreary |
Most of the trail sits on the west side of downtown, along 17th, 18th and 19th Streets and Second and Third Avenues. Three pieces sit near each other on Second and Third Avenues: the Bankhead gavel at the King Building, the tulip poplar leaf at The Gates Loft and the mule collar at Los Reyes Grill. The Creek Indian Head and the Carl Elliott bookmobile are farther east, toward Town Creek. That eastern end connects to one of the oldest structures on the pilgrimage list.
Two houses about a mile apart
The White House on Fifth Museum & Gallery at 1508 Fifth Ave. S. is the historic Phillips home. Jefferson "Jake" Phillips built it in the early 1900s. He was a businessman who served as Jasper's mayor and as Walker County sheriff. Martha Pennington's 1981 book "Walking Through Walker County" calls it a Greek Revival house built in 1907. The house sat empty and in disrepair for years. Jasper native Terri Drummond Lyon bought it, restored the fireplaces, staircases, fixtures and floors over several years, and donated it to the Walker Area Community Foundation.
The exhibits come from all over Walker County. Artifacts and artwork were donated or loaned by people across the county, and many of the historical items come from Pat Morrison's private collection. Morrison chairs the Heritage Council. He is also one of the two presenters at the pilgrimage's Saturday program. The gallery side shows rotating work by local and regional artists. Admission is free. Current exhibits are posted on the museum's website.
The museum was set up as a companion to the Bankhead House & Heritage Center at 800 Seventh St. W., almost a mile away. The Bankhead House currently shows clay works and paintings by area physician Dr. Jerry Mosley. Both houses keep the same hours, which matters for when you go:
- Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed from noon to 1 p.m.
- The third Saturday of each month, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
This month's third Saturday is October 17, so it's the one ordinary weekend day this month when you can see both houses and walk the trail in the same outing. The week before, on October 10, the Foothills Book Fest is at the Jasper Civic Center, 204 19th St. E. The pilgrimage itself follows on October 24.
Where the water still runs
The artesian well is at 2000 4th Ave. S. According to the Daily Mountain Eagle, it was built in the 1920s to supply water to mining sites near the Alabama Water Company building. By 1939 the public had found it. People drank straight from a raised pipe or filled buckets to carry home, and both locals and out-of-town visitors used it every day.
"Compared to what it was, ain't nothing the same." Joe Simko, Quality Construction Company
The water stays, but almost every visible part of the well is being rebuilt. Simko's crew had to send the flow into a drain so they could work. The Walker Area Community Foundation is funding the restoration. Renae Wilson, Main Street's marketing and events director, said raising the money "took about a year and a half." She added that Main Street is a nonprofit that runs on donations and grants. It is not a city department.
When the Eagle reported on the project, the plan was for the Walker County Health Department and Auburn University's Soil, Forage, and Water Testing Lab to test the water once the work was done. We haven't found a published update on whether the restoration is finished or what the tests showed. For now, go see the well, but don't drink from it.
Mules, a bridge, and a trolley
The Walker County Arts Alliance started its mule project in 2011 to honor the mules that hauled coal in the county's mines. The Alabama Historical Association's newsletter counts 80 mule statues across Walker County, with about 30 in downtown Jasper. The Arts Alliance's own page says the original 50 have grown to more than 70. Sponsors own and maintain their mules. Petting is allowed, but climbing on them is not. Some mules are on private property, so the Arts Alliance mule list and map is the better way to pick which ones to visit.
The Creek Indian Head sculpture at Town Creek is a short hop from the WPA-NYA rock bridge in Town Creek Park. The bridge sits between Town Creek and 1st Avenue, beside Maddox Middle School, and dates to 1939. The park opens at 4 a.m. every day. It closes at 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and at 11 p.m. Friday through Sunday.
If you'd rather ride, Jasper Main Street and the City of Jasper have brought back Trolley on Main. It runs guided tours of downtown history, including the sculpture trail. Tours require at least two weeks' notice, and the trolley isn't available for private event rentals. To book, stop by the Welcome Center & Museum at 311 W. 18th St. or email Renae Wilson at [email protected]. A group trolley tour booked today, October 4, could run by the third weekend of the month.
The pilgrimage list also includes the Steven C. Minkin Paleozoic Footprint Site, which the Alabama Historical Association calls one of the world's most significant fossil trackway locations. The site is not open to the general public. The pilgrimage's guided visit on Friday, October 23, requires preregistration.
Jasper is also adding something new near the old. Young Jewelers, whose store sits about a block from the well, plans to break ground in November on a two-story flagship across the street at 395 19th St. W.
At Sherry Pruitt Real Estate, we pay attention to what sets a town apart. In Jasper this year, that includes a restored 1907 house, a 1939 rock bridge and a 1920s well that are now easy to visit in one afternoon. If you own an older home near downtown Jasper and want to understand how its history and setting play into its value, schedule a consultation today.
