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Courtesy of the Alabama Department of
Archives and History |
Welcome...
Colbert County was created
by an act of the state legislature on February 6, 1867,
and was named for brothers George and Levi Colbert,
leaders of the Chickasaw Nation who operated a ferry
across the Tennessee River. Originally part of Franklin
County, Colbert County was created to increase
Democratic representation in the state legislature at a
time when Alabama was controlled by Radical Republicans
during Reconstruction. With a black population of less
than 25 percent at the time, Colbert County provided the
Democratic Party with a white majority. On November 29,
1867, the Republican legislature repealed the act that
brought the county into existence. In January 1870, Gov.
William Hugh Smith abolished the repeal, and Colbert was
once again a county.
Muscle Shoals Canal
The Tennessee River made Colbert County an important
antebellum trade center in the South, although the
Muscle Shoals section of the river was virtually
impassable during the early nineteenth century. Numerous
flinty, jagged rocks broke the surface, and the sharp
fall of the river—some 130 feet over 37 miles—produced
extensive rapids. Navigation of the area was restricted
to flatboats, keelboats, and other small craft. Efforts
to construct canals in the shoals dated back to 1783,
but it was not until the advent of the steamboat during
the 1820s that the river was seen as a potential major
transportation route. In 1831, Congress authorized the
construction of a canal around Muscle Shoals, but after
six years the project was abandoned. In 1873, the
project was revived, under the supervision of Col.
George W. Goethals, who would later oversee the
construction of the Panama Canal. The final project,
completed in 1890, cost more than $3 million. Muscle
Shoals was finally made navigable by the construction of
Wilson Dam in 1924.
History From:
http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1318 |
