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South Alabama andLower Alabama are overlapping, poorly defined terms for various parts of southernAlabama. Although it is not a strictly defined geographic region, it generally includes all Alabama counties south of theBlack Belt. In that view,South Alabama consists of just the two counties that border the Gulf of Mexico and Mobile Bay:Baldwin County andMobile County. That area is characterized by extensivewetlands, but also by long, sandy beaches which are very conducive totourism. Many deluxegolf courses have been developed in the area in recent decades.

Because Mobile and Baldwin Counties tend to use "South Alabama" with such exclusivity, other parts of southern Alabama, particularly the Florida-border counties from Escambia County over to Houston County often humorously prefer to be calledLower Alabama if a regional name must be given. Traditionally the south central and southeastern parts of the state have less in common with the Mobile area than they have in common with southwest Georgia and the Black Belt region. Alternative names include South Central Alabama, Southeast Alabama, and the Wiregrass.

Because there is no formally defined border, there are three overlapping areas generally referred to as Lower Alabama:

• In the vicinity ofMobile, Alabama, the argument is that it refers only to the southernmost parts ofAlabama. This usage insists that it is properly applied only to the two counties which border theGulf of Mexico andMobile Bay:Baldwin County andMobile County. This area is characterized by extensivewetlands, but also by long, sandybeaches which are very conducive totourism. Many deluxegolf courses have been developed in the area in recent decades. However, this region more commonly takes South Alabama as a better-known name for the region. This is reflected in the name of theUniversity of South Alabama located in Mobile.
• It includes the area all the way up fromTroy to all the way south to Mobile.
• Because Mobile and Baldwin Counties tend to use South Alabama with exclusivity, a second use of "Lower Alabama" is to refer to the other parts of southern Alabama, including the Florida-border counties from Escambia County east to Houston County. Traditionally, the south central and southeastern parts of the state are representative of an older era in Alabama. Hence, Lower Alabama, suggests that this region is less wealthy than other parts of the state. It includes the cities ofDothan,Luverne, Troy,Abbeville,Eufaula, andCowarts. These sections of the state are where jokes are often heard with punch lines of "Yep, I'm from L.A. too: Lower Alabama" (this can be heard in the 1971James Brown single "Escape-ism.") Further evidence of this region's claim was the "University of Lower Alabama" as one of the considered name changes byTroy State University before it becameTroy University.
• Some people inNorth Alabama refer to Lower Alabama as anywhere below the Cherokee Nation line inMarshall County or any other Upper Alabama county whose water drains to theTennessee River instead of through theAlabama River watershed.^{[citation needed]}

• South Alabama Community Website

31°47′N86°47′W / 31.78°N 86.79°W /31.78; -86.79

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