Pathways: Walk through the History of Muscle Shoals
Muscle Shoals; Colbert County; Alabama; Museums; City Hall; Muscle Shoals Music; Muscle Shoals Sound; FAME Studios; Natchez Trace Parkway; Shoals; Tennessee River; Wilson Dam; Tennessee Valley Authority
“Pathways: Walk through the History of Muscle Shoals” is a corridor of historic displays in the Muscle Shoals City Hall. It covers the history of the city of Muscle Shoals, the Wilson Dam and Lock, and Muscle Shoals Music with exhibits of original documents and photographs. Admission is free and it is open from 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m Monday-Friday.
Jacob Grandstaff, University of North Alabama
“Natchez Trace Parkway,” Accessed November 17, 2015, http://www.scenictrace.com/pathways-walk-through-the-history-of-muscle-shoals/.
“Muscle Shoals Music,” Muscle Shoals Area, Alabama, Accessed November 17, 2015, http://www.colbertcountytourism.org/index.php/2012-11-08-15-06-08/2012-11-12-01-58-07.
“Pathways: Walk through the History of Muscle Shoals,” Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area, Accessed November 17, 2015, http://msnha.una.edu/plan-a-visit/?a=18.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 27, 2015
Tent Colony at the TVA
Tent Colony; TVA; CCC; Colbert, County;
Once the TVA was formed during the New Deal, men were needed to work on building Wilson Dam and to work in the Nitrate Factory No. 2. Many of these men were a part of the Civilian Conservation Corps, or CCC. Many of the original workers were being relocated from the Northwestern United States. The first groups of men established camps to live in while they were working for the TVA. These campsites eventually became known as the Nitrate Villages. The men's jobs included preventing erosion, working on the dam, planting saplings, and working on building the nitrate factory.These men were soon introduced to educational training in April of 1936. This training focused on business, soil conservation, agriculture, mechanics, journalism, radio, first aid, and practical science. For those who needed it, basic education on reading and writing was also taught to the men in the camps.
Carrie Keener, University of North Alabama
Carle, J.F. 'US Nitrate Plant No. 2, Muscle Shoals, Alabama'. Paper. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
'FDR, TVA, And CCC Federal Influence In The Shoals: The Journal Of Muscle Shoals History Volume XIX'. 2015. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
KIng, Gail. 2010. 'Wilson Village No. 2 1918-1950'. Book. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
'Sheffield History And Recollections: Journal Of Muscle Shoals History Volume XVIII'. 2011. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
December 1, 2015
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Nitrate Plant Village No. 2
Colbert County, Alabama; Sheffield, Alabama; Nitrate; Village
The Tennessee Valley is filled with minerals, including the materials needed to produce nitrates. Nitrates can be used for many things, most importantly for TVA to help add nutrients to fertilizer. This helped to increase crop production. Another use for a nitrate plant can be for producing nitric acid during times of war to create explosives. These two important factors helped lead the US government to initially start building the Wilson Dam in 1918 and susbequently in 1933 give the TVA control of one of the two nitrate plants in the area of the Shoals. During the early twentieth century, only a small amount of nitrate used in the US came from the country. Most was imported from South America.<br /><br />The top priority of the TVA was to improve soil and prevent erosion. By employing nitrogen from the plant, the TVA could improve farmland. Before the introduction of nitrogen back into the land by the TVA, farmers were exhausting the land and creating barren fallow fields of mud that eroded away into the river. With the plant came a village to house the many workers brought into the area by the Civilian Conservation Corps. This was called Village No. 2 and existed for 32 years. The plant was built by the American Cyanmid Company, with the overall goal of producing 40,000 tons of nitrogen. The plant and Wilson Dam, then referred to as Dam No. 2, were commissioned and built by the federal government, with the help of the state of Alabama. The plant was to produce ammonium nitrate by the cynamid process of nitrogen fixation. It cost about $12 million dollars to build. <br /><p>The village was constructed around the same time as the dam. The village itself housed many of the workers and their families. The village housed a local school for younger ages, a fire department, and even book mobiles to allow greater access to books. The houses came in prefabricated styles, ranging from three to seven rooms. Every house had complete sewer, water, and electrical connections, a rare thing at the time. There were 42 permanent houses, 1 mess hall, three office buildings, a post office, and even an ice plant that produced 6 tons of ice a day. </p>
Carrie Keener, University of North Alabama
'FDR, TVA, And CCC Federal Influence In The Shoals: The Journal Of Muscle Shoals History Volume XIX'. 2015. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
KIng, Gail. 2010. 'Wilson Village No. 2 1918-1950'. Book. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
December 1, 2015
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Nitrate Plant No. 2
Colbert County, Alabama; Muscle Shoals, Alabama; Tuscumbia, Alabama; Sheffield, Alabama; Nitrate
The Tennessee Valley is filled with minerals, including the materials needed to produce nitrates. Nitrates can be used for many things, most importantly for TVA to help add nutrients to fertilizer. This helped to increase crop production. Another use for a nitrate plant can be for producing nitric acid during times of war to create explosives. These two important factors helped lead the US government to initially start building the Wilson Dam in 1918 and susbequently in 1933 give the TVA control of one of the two nitrate plants in the area of the Shoals. During the early twentieth century, only a small amount of nitrate used in the US came from the country. Most was imported from South America.<br /><br />The top priority of the TVA was to improve soil and prevent erosion. By employing nitrogen from the plant, the TVA could improve farmland. Before the introduction of nitrogen back into the land by the TVA, farmers were exhausting the land and creating barren fallow fields of mud that eroded away into the river. With the plant came a village to house the many workers brought into the area by the Civilian Conservation Corps. This was called Village No. 2 and existed for 32 years. The plant was built by the American Cyanmid Company, with the overall goal of producing 40,000 tons of nitrogen. The plant and Wilson Dam, then referred to as Dam No. 2, were commissioned and built by the federal government, with the help of the state of Alabama. The plant was to produce ammonium nitrate by the cynamid process of nitrogen fixation. It cost about $12 million dollars to build.
Carrie Keener, University of North Alabama
'FDR, TVA, And CCC Federal Influence In The Shoals: The Journal Of Muscle Shoals History Volume XIX'. 2015. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
Gunther, John. 1953. 'The Story Of The TVA'. Book. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
'Sheffield History And Recollections: Journal Of Muscle Shoals History Volume XVIII'. 2011. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Colleciton. UNA Special Archives.
Carle, J.F. 'US Nitrate Plant No. 2, Muscle Shoals, Alabama'. Paper. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
Young, Ronald. 1976. 'History Of US Facilities At Muscle Shoals, Alabama, And Origins Of The TVA'. Paper. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
Alabama Resource Survey
December 1, 2015
image, postcards
The First Muscle Shoals Canal
Muscle Shoals; Colbert County, Alabama;
The first canal built in the Muscle Shoals was built by the state of Alabama, assisted by the United States government, between 1831-1836. To fund the canal the US Congress gave the state 400,000 acres of public land to sell. The proceeds were used to fund the building of the canal. At the time, there was a need for four canals along the Tenneessee River in North Alabama, at Big Muscle Shoals, Elk River Shoals, Nancy Reef, and Little Muscle Shoals. Only at Big Muscle Shoals was a dam built. The need for the canals was due to the turbulent waters and widely varying depth of the river along the Shoals.<br /> Even with the addition of the canal to the river it barely made an impact on naviagtion. The canal was 14.5 miles long. Large barrages could not fit through the narrow canal and it took nearly eleven hours to travel fully making it impossible for much traffic to travel along the canal. The canal contained 17 locks, each 120 feet long by 32 feet, with a lift of five feet each. The way the canal was made also limited traffic to only come from up the river, not both ways. Today, the lower locks, 3-9, are submerged underwater due to the construction of the Wilson Dam.
Carrie Keener, University of North Alabama
'Muscle Shoals: Souvenir Of Inspection Trip By Officials And Citizens Of The Tri Cities'. 1919. Florence. Willism Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
Peyton, John Howe. 1916. 'America's Gibraltar Muscle Shoals'. Paper. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
'FDR, TVA, And CCC Federal Influence In The Shoals: The Journal Of Muscle Shoals History Volume XIX'. 2015. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
December 1, 2015
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The Powerhouse
Colbert, County; Muscle Shoals, Alabama; Wilson Dam; Wilson Lake; TVA
The powerhouse controls Wilson Dam. The building is connected parallel to the dam on the south side. It houses the generating machinery for producing electricity from the dammed water. It also controls the overflow water flowing out of Wilson lake. The powerhouse contains the penstocks to conduct water towards the turbines. <br />The top level is the main generator room. The building is built of reinforced concrete columns and girders supporting a slab roof by steel trusses.
Carrie Keener, University of North Alabama
'FDR, TVA, And CCC Federal Influence In The Shoals: The Journal Of Muscle Shoals History Volume XIX'. 2015. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
Peyton, John Howe. 1916. 'America's Gibraltar Muscle Shoals'. Paper. Florence. William Lindsey McDonald Collection. UNA Special Archives.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 30, 2015
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Wilson Dam Lake
Colbert, County; Muscle Shoals, Alabama; Florence, Alabama; Fishing; Wilson Dam
Wilson Dam Lake was created from the damming of the Tennessee River by the construction of the Wilson Dam. The lake's normal elevation is 505 feet. The average depth is 97 feet. The distance of the backwater upstream is 17 miles and the area of the surface is 14,500 acres. Much of the flooded land was once farmland used in the Shoals. On the southern edge of the lake there is a leak of water and overflow water flows out into the Tennessee River.<br /><br />There are many myths surrounding the area around the dam and lake, most involving the native catfish. The lake is popular for fishing and the size of the fish are often exagerated in reports. Blue catfish often range from 50-80 pounds, but can be as large as 100 pounds.<br /><br />The lake was flooded by the TVA, the ones in control of Wilson Dam and the Tennessee River. By building a dam in the area the TVA was able to power the surrounding cities. Another benefit to building the dam and creating the lake was by powering the nitrate plants in Muscle Shoals. These plants provided much needed fertilizer for eroded farmland.
Carrie Keener, University of North Alabama
Sherer, Dennis. "Myths, Legends Surround Historic Wilson Dam." TimesDaily. June 19, 2010. Accessed November 30, 2015. http://www.timesdaily.com/archives/myths-legends-surround-historic-wilson-dam/article_90620d82-e607-5aef-a483-b42a0fe94a40.html.<br /><span class="selectable">'Destination Shoals'. 2011. Florence. Florence City. UNA Special Archives.</span><br /><br />
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 30, 2015
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Nitrate Village No. 1 Historic District
Colbert County, Alabama; Sheffield, Alabama; Nitrate Village No. 1 Historic District; Woodrow Wilson; Franklin D. Roosevelt; New Deal; National Defense Act; Wilson Dam; Tennessee Valley Authority; National Register of Historic Places; Historical American Engineering Record
The Nitrate Village No. 1 Historic District encompasses 112 family homes, two school buildings and one apartment complex, situated near the south bank of the Tennessee River in Sheffield, Alabama. The village was constructed in 1918 to house workers and their families after President Woodrow Wilson designated Sheffield as the site for a new nitrate plant, where the experimental German "Haber" process would be utilized in an (ultimately unsuccessful) attempt to extract weapons-grade nitrate from the atmosphere.
Designed by the Ewing and Allen architectural firm, and constructed by New York's J.G. White Engineering Corporation, the village street plan has a distinctive "liberty bell" shape, and the unifying architectural aesthetic is similarly distinctive. The village is typical of government-sponsored "planned communities" of the period in that all materials used in its construction were standardized and prefabricated to minimize costs and construction time. Likewise, all of the village's buildings share the same Bungalow-style architecture, with stuccoed walls and terracotta roofs.
Nitrate Village No. 1 was deeded to the city of Sheffield in 1949, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Nitrate Village No. 1 Historic District, Sheffield, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #84000603.
Historic American Engineering Record, HAER AL-46, http://loc.gov/pictures/item/al1051 (accessed November 9, 2015).
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 9, 2015
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Clyde Carter House
Colbert County, Alabama; Ford City, Alabama; Clyde Carter House; Clyde Carter; Henry Ford; Wilson Dam; Rural Electrification Act; Agriculture; Architecture; National Register of Historic Places
Built between 1924 and 1930, the Clyde Carter House is a Spanish-Eclectic-style cottage located in what was (briefly) the Bernard Subdivision of Ford City. With its "fanciful," European-influenced design and stuccoed walls, the house stands out amongst the Bungalow-style dwellings which otherwise dominate its rural setting.
The Carter residence was the first, and only, home built for the proposed Bernard Subdivision, envisioned as a planned community for nitrate-plant workers and their families after Henry Ford announced his intention to buy Wilson Dam from the federal government and remake the agricultural Shoals into "a modern industrial landscape." When Ford's plans fell through, development of a planned community at Ford City was scrapped, and construction of the Spanish Eclectic cottage was abandoned until Clyde Carter purchased the property in 1930.
For a decade and a half, beginning in 1930, Carter and his family grew cotton and corn on the surrounding farmland, and the same two crops were still being farmed on the property as recently as 2004, when the house was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Brian Corrigan, University of North Alabama
National Register of Historic Places, Clyde Carter House, Ford City, Colbert County, Alabama, National Register #04000559.
Alabama Cultural Resource Survey
November 7, 2015
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