On A Tour Of ‘America’s Amazon,’ Flora, Fauna And Glimpses Of Alabama’s Past

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A field of pitcher plants are nestled in a bog within the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. Ben Raines calls pitcher plants «carnivorous wonders because they draw most of their nutrients from insects they kill and digest.





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The Mobile-Tensaw Delta is «the most diverse river system in North America, says Ben Raines. «There are more species of fish, turtles, snails, salamanders, crawfish and mussels here than any other river system in America.





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Fields of iris are seen around Alabama’s Little Bateau bay. The plants play an important role in the swamp ecosystem, helping to hold the mud in place.





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The eye of a two-foot long alligator creeps out of the water in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta.





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Ben Raines has spent 20 years documenting the Mobile Delta, but he made his most significant discovery two years ago when he found the wreck of the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to America.





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Ben Raines has spent 20 years documenting the Mobile Delta, but he made his most significant discovery two years ago when he found the wreck of the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to America.


Debbie Elliott/NPR

«A wealthy plantation owner and steamboat captain named Timothy Meaher bet that he could smuggle a bunch of slaves into the country, which was illegal and had been for 50 years, he says. «You could still have slaves, but you couldn’t bring in Africans.

Just before the start of the Civil War, the Clotilda returned from West Africa with 110 captives and snuck in through this network of rivers instead of coming through the port of Mobile. The captives were hidden in the swamp thicket.

«After they got all the slaves off the boat, they lit it on fire and sank it to hide evidence of the crime, says Raines, who is now working on a book about the Clotilda. «We’re in a very desolate place. There’s nothing around. The reason the ship is here is because they wanted to hide it. And they wanted no one to know what they had done and where they had done it.

On the shore by the site of the shipwreck, Spanish moss drapes from the cypress trees along the shore creating a ghostly image.


«This is such a haunted place, Raines says.