Eufaula is the principal city in Barbour County, on a high bluff of the west bank of the Chattahoochee River. The bluff forms a plain which extends on the north half a mile to Chewalla Creek, on the south, with a gradual descent, to Barbour Creek. The city got its name from the Creek town of Yufala, which was situated 3 miles above, on the west bank of the Chattahoochee.
Lakepoint State Park in Eufaula
A "sugar moon", also called a "worm moon", is a full moon which takes place in March at the end of winter. According to The Farmer's Almanac, the full moon in march is called a "worm moon" because, as the temperature begins to warm and the ground begins to thaw, earthworm casts appear, heralding the return of the robins.
An Alabama full moon in March.
The more northern tribes knew this Moon as the Full Crow Moon, when the cawing of crows signaled the end of winter; or the Full Crust Moon, because the snow cover becomes crusted from thawing by day and freezing at night. The Full Sap Moon, marking the time of tapping maple trees, is another variation. To the settlers, it was known as the Lenten Moon, and was considered to be the last full Moon of winter.
What follows is an excerpt from Lella Warren's historical novel, Foundation Stone, which traces the lives of the Whetstone clan as Alabama planters. The excerpt is significant for the way in which Yarbrough, a cotton planter, savors the early days of cotton trade in the prosperous Eufala, and for the presence of the "sugar moon".
The boat hove to at Yufala at the end of the day when brick-colored sunset was filling the sky above the browned trees. There were friends in the houses all along the Bluff, who called out invitations for him to take supper and spend the night, but he could hardly wait to get home as it was. He loved every foot of the way, every stumble the strange livery stable horse made in the holes that dipped suddenly in patches of shadow cast by the moon. It was the sugar moon at its full, big and round and gold as an orange. When he neared his own and he could smell how the air was juicy from days on end of cane-grinding. He dismounted quietly at the gate-stumps and sat down on the Rock Wall to take a look at it.
Yarbrough stands, watching his wife and children, anticipating his home-coming and attendant affections.
Thus Yarbrough stood and savoured these early plundering years not caring for any time beyond when there might be the luxury of rest. He belonged now, in the days of trail-blazing. A little chill ran over him like a graveyard wind. When the rawness had gone out of the land he would be-- not here... He could not picture this grappling, tumbling country as ever being weeded out, to grow the prim flowers of graciousness. And yet-- something stopped his heart like a clock-- for he saw that these early Alabama years were all but gone by. And he could not hold them back in his grip.
Yarbrough takes a deep breath and approaches his family, prepared for the revelry. He saunters up and immediately takes his wife into his arms.
They squeezed the baby awake between them in their embrace, after which they turned to the children. "One of you fetch your father a dipper of cane juice".
Hans brought it, toeing in carefully in order not to slosh it. Yarbrough sat down to quaff its icy sweetness, so purely luscious, like nothing else except the heart of all things that come to fruit.
The sugar moon was bowling down behind the clouds.
More about Lella Warren and sugar moons:
- Guide to the Papers of Lella Warren in the archives at Auburn University Montgomery.
- "Sugarcane" handout in pdf, with information about kettles, cane juice, history, and more.
- "Making cane syrup in the kettle", a pdf from Southern Matters.
- Is a sugar moon a perigee moon?
- Early Settlers of Alabama by James E. Saunders, a book which includes tales from early Eufaula settlers.
- "Highs and Lows in Eufaula", a narrative tourism article.
- Eufaula city website.
- Eufaula Heritage Association, a place where you can still don pink and tulle.
- Eufaula entry for Encyclopedia of Southern Jewish Communities.
- More images of cotton and steamboats in Alabama.
