Siri Hedreen / The Outlook
What was once the Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute is now a section of pine forest owned by Lake Martin developer Russell Lands. For years, the bell tower was all that remained of the old campus. Russell Lands recently rebuilt the crumbling bell tower.
It's easy for travelers heading down Highway 63 to miss Benson, the rural community once home to the Carnegie-backed Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute and the first Black-owned railroad in the U.S. No signs point out Benson; much of it lies underwater beneath the Kowaliga Bridge.
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Siri Hedreen / The Outlook
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Siri Hedreen / The Outlook
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Submitted / The Outlook
Students pose for a photo in the Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute's 17th annual report.
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Siri Hedreen / The Outlook
Pieces of concrete foundation are still visible on the site of the Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute. The school closed after its Elmore County students were cut off by the rising levels of Lake Martin.
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Siri Hedreen / The Outlook
"Terrific winds" burned the school down in 1909. The buildings burned down again in the 1960s, by then several decades after the Russells turned it into Hotel Camp Dixie.
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Siri Hedreen / The Outlook
William E. Benson is buried on the site of what was once the Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute, a few feet off a dirt road leading to one of Russell Lands' waterfront developments.
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Siri Hedreen / The Outlook
The site of the Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute is accessible by trail but lacks a historical marker.
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