Ages ago this area lay beneath an arm of the ocean, where shells and other marine organisms were deposited to form the limestone seen here. Exposure of the limestone to many kinds of weathering gradually changed it into a heavy, fertile soil of various colors. The dominant black soil, which before cultivation was prairie grassland, gave the region the name Black Belt, or Black Prairie. The Black Belt extends south beyond Columbus, Mississippi, then trends eastward across nearly all of Alabama. Once one of America’s great cotton areas, it is now considered excellent pasture land for livestock.