TALLADEGA COUNTY ALABAMA

Talladega County Alabama

Map of Alabama highlighting Talladega County
Map of Alabama highlighting Talladega County

Talladega County is a county of the state of Alabama. The county was established December 18, 1832 from land ceded by the Creek Indians. 

As of the 2010 census, the population was 82,291. Its county seat is Talladega, Alabama.

Talladega is derived from the Muscogee (Creek) Native American word TVLVTEKE which translates to “border town.” Prior to Euro-American settlement in what is today Talladega County it was the home of the Abihka tribe of the Creek Confederacy.

The county seat of Talladega was founded in January of 1834 and the following year incorporated.  Two years later the county courthouse was built.  It still remains there today as the oldest working courthouse in the state.

In Talladega County, the Riddle and Story Mines both produced lode gold, with placers found in Talladega Creek.

Talladega County Alabama Cities:

Childersburg Alabama

Childersburg is a city in Talladega County. It was incorporated in 1889. At the 2010 census the population was 5,175. It claims a history dating back before 1540, when it was noted as a village of the Coosa Nation visited by the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. Successive indigenous peoples had lived in the area for thousands of years. In the 16th century, people identified as part of the Kymulga-phase culture (of the larger Mississippian culture) lived at Talisi, the former site of Childersburg. In the fall of 1540, the Spanish Hernando de Soto expedition rested here for about one month during its exploration of the Southeast. Childersburg calls itself “The Oldest City in America”. The Abihka people (part of those who became known as the Muskogee or Creek) dominated the area by the 18th century.

Source: Wikipedia contributors, “Childersburg, Alabama,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia (accessed June 9, 2019).

Childersurg  is the oldest continually occupied city in the United States dating back to at least 1540. This town goes back to being known as “Coosa Village” occupied by the Coosa Indian Nation and is still full of Indian lore and artifacts. It is the home of DeSoto Caverns which is the site of the oldest recorded cave in the state. The city has an annual birthday celebration in the Fall named “Coosa Fest.” The city is also thought to be “a sportsman’s paradise for fishing and hunting” due to its lakes and wildlife.

Bon Air Alabama

Bon Air is a town in Talladega County. Bon Air is located approximately five miles northwest of the Talladega National Forest and two miles southeast of the Coosa River. It incorporated in 1932. At the 2010 census the population was 116, up from 96 in 2000. Like many other Alabama small towns, Bon Air began as a company town established by the Danville Spinning Mill, which commenced production in 1914. The company constructed some 70 houses and duplexes to accommodate its workers. The mill was on one side of the main road through the area, and the houses were on the other; as was typical of such towns.

Munford Alabama

Munford is a town in Talladega County. At the 2010 census the population was 1,292. Munford was initially incorporated in 1873. At some point in the 1880s, it either disincorporated or lost its charter. In 2000, Munford was classified as a census-designated place (CDP), and in 2002 formally incorporated again.

Munford is the location of what has been called the last battle of the Civil War east of the Mississippi, the Battle of Munford on April 23, 1865, being one week after the Battle of Columbus (April 16, 1865) in Georgia. 

Oak Grove Alabama

Oak Grove is a town in Talladega County. It incorporated in 1966. At the 2010 census, the population was 528. Oak Grove is a suburb of the city of Sylacauga. The two municipalities are contiguous, and both run along U.S. Highway 280, which runs from Birmingham, Alabama, southeastward to Columbus, Georgia, and then through Georgia toward Jacksonville, Florida. Oak Grove is 40 miles (64 km) southeast of Birmingham and 70 miles (110 km) north of Montgomery via U.S. Highway 231.

Talladega Springs Alabama

Talladega Springs is a town in Talladega County. At the 2010 census the population was 166. Before being submerged beneath Lay Lake, Fort Williams was located near Talladega Springs. It was used as an Indian Agency and supply depot during the Creek War.

Vincent Alabama

Vincent, originally known as Propel or Propel, is a city in Shelby, St. Clair, and Talladega counties in the U.S. state of Alabama. At the 2010 census the population was 1,988. The community was first known as Propel, but later named Vincent in honor of the Vincent family, who were early settlers of the area. It was incorporated in 1897.

Waldo Alabama

Waldo is a town in Talladega County, Alabama, United States. It incorporated in 1972. At the 2010 census the population was 283.

Waldo Covered Bridge

Located east of AL Hwy. 77 in Talladega County. Free admission. Built in 1858, this is one of Alabama’s oldest covered bridges. 115 feet long, it spans Talladega Creek and rests on two stone piers on site of old Socopatoy Indian Trail.

Lincoln Alabama

Lincoln is a city in Talladega County. It was incorporated in 1911. At the 2010 census the population was 6,266. It was named for Major General Benjamin Lincoln, who served in the American army during the Revolutionary War. The Talladega Superspeedway, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and the Talladega Municipal Airport are all located in Lincoln. It is home to Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, employing over 4,000 people. 

Oxford Alabama

Oxford Alabama is a city in Calhoun and Talladega counties in the State of Alabama. The population was 21,348 at the 2010 census, an increase of 46.3% since the 2000 Census.

Founded in the early 1850s, Oxford was the first city in Calhoun County to be incorporated, in 1852. The name “Oxford” was due to the presence of a narrow crossing of Chocolocco Creek that allowed farmers to ford cattle from one side of the creek to the other. Since 1970, Oxford has annexed large amounts of land to the south and west, including the communities of Coldwater and Bynum. In 1970, it was all in Calhoun County, but today it includes areas in Talladega County.

A smaller municipality, Hobson City, was once a part of Oxford. The area, then known as the Mooree Quarter, is one square mile, and is located north and west of Oxford, and south and west of Anniston. In the last years of the 19th century, according to tradition, in the course of political elections, a black man managed to be elected justice of the peace in Oxford. This being unacceptable to the city fathers, they appealed to the powers in the state capital, and an ‘arrangement’ was made. The city boundaries were redrawn, in similar fashion to a gerrymander, and the quarter was excluded, becoming a town unto itself. The new town became incorporated on August 16, 1899 as Hobson City, taking the name of a naval hero of the Spanish–American War. The intention was that the largely black population of this quarter would no longer skew the elections of the now almost exclusively white Oxford. Another result was the creation of only the second town in the United States (after Eatonville, Florida) with 100% black government, and an almost 100% black population (at least at first).

Wikipedia contributors, “Oxford, Alabama,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

 

Sylacauga Alabama

Sylacauga is a city in Talladega County. The population was 12,749 in 2010.

Nicknames for Sylacauga include “The Marble City”, “The Cog”, and “Alabama’s Best-Kept Secret”.

Talladega Alabama

Map of Alabama highlighting Talladega County

 

Talladega County Alabama Towns:

Talladega County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2010 census, the population was 82,291. Its county seat is Talladega.

Talladega County Alabama Communities:

Fayetteville Alabama

Fayetteville is a census-designated place and unincorporated community in Talladega County. Its population was 1,284 as of the 2010 census.

Mignon Alabama

Mignon is a census-designated place (CDP) in Talladega County. At the 2010 census the population was 1,284.

Alpine Alabama

Alpine is an unincorporated community in Talladega County, located southwest of Talladega and northwest of Childersburg. It is known to Alabama residents as the site of YMCA Camp Cosby. The community gained its name from Alpine, a plantation owned by the Welch family. Over time, a town grew up around the plantation when a railroad came through.

Bemiston Alabama

Bemiston is an unincorporated community and former company town in Talladega County.

Bemiston was founded in 1927, as a mill town built around the Bemis Brothers Bag Company cotton mill. The mill was built between Alabama State Route 21 and the Eastern Alabama Railway. The 700,000-square-foot mill produced handbags during the Great Depression and sandbags during World War II. The community was home to a school, general store, automobile repair shop, nurses’ office, and gymnasium. The company built a power plant and sewer and water treatment plant to serve the community. A recreational director was hired to develop a community baseball and basketball team. The workers’ houses were made of California Redwood, with two-car garages and running hot and cold water. A community dairy farm was started by the company with 68 Holstein cattle to provide milk to the residents. Bemis closed the mill in 1979, but the factory was acquired by Master Brand Industries, a cabinet maker. The community has since been listed on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

Source: Wikipedia contributors, “Bemiston, Alabama,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Eastaboga Alabama

Eastaboga is an Unincorporated community on the border of Talladega and Calhoun counties.It was previously called McFall, named for a settling family in the 1850s, and incorporated in 1898, only to be disincorporated in 1901. The original community of Eastaboga was to the south and became known as Old Eastaboga after McFall’s name was changed to Eastaboga.

Fishtrap Alabama

Fishtrap, also known as Beavers Fish Trap or Sims Trap, is an unincorporated community in Talladega County.

Hopeful Alabama

Hopeful (also, Hopewell, Cheaha, Davis, and Hopefull) is an unincorporated community in Talladega County.The community was named for Hopeful Church of Christ, which was founded in 1878. 

Kahatchie Alabama

Kahatchee, also known as Handytown, Achates, Cohatchie, or Keyhatchie, is an unincorporated community in Talladega County. The community’s name comes from the same name of an Upper Creek town which was located here. It also lends its name to nearby Kahatchee Creek and the Kahatchie Hills. In Creek, Kahatchie means “cane creek”, in reference to the river cane which grows along waterways throughout Alabama. A post office called Handytown was established in 1873, and remained in operation until it was discontinued in 1874. A post office was then operated in the area under the name Achates from 1882 until it was closed in 1894.

Kentuck Alabama

Liberty Hill Alabama

Mardisville Alabama

Old Eastaboga Alabama

Sycamore Alabama

Winterboro Alabama

Photo Credit: Talladega County Alabama Courthouse by Rivers Langley

Talladega County Alabama Historic Destinations:

Kymulga Grist Mill and Covered Bridge – Alpine Alabama

DeSoto Caverns – Childersburg Alabama

Ritz Theatre – Talladega Alabama

Waldo Covered Bridge – Waldo Alabama

Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind and Warren Museum – Talladega Alabama

Jemison-Carnegie Heritage Hall – Talladega Alabama

Isabel Anderson Comer Museum and Arts Center – Sylacauga Alabama

Talladega County Places of Interest

    • The Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind is a fully accredited institute  started in 1858 by Joseph Henry Johnson in hopes of helping his deaf brother overcome obstacles he faced.  This school that offers free tuition to Alabama residents has served those with sensory impairments for over 140 years and offers many extracurricular activities such as social clubs, field trips, music, and a variety of sports.  There are five campuses in Talladega: Alabama School for the Blind, Alabama School for the Deaf, Helen Keller School of Alabama, E.H. Gentry Technical Facility, and Alabama Industries for the Blind.
    •           Craft’s Blueberry Farm, 4060 Eastaboga Rd, Talladega.  Open June, July, August, Wednesday-Sunday 7AM-7PM (256) 362-7350
    •           Comet Grove Community Garden, 1475 Odens Mill Rd, Sylacauga.  All produce.  Opens May 22, on Saturdays only 9AM-5PM (256) 245-5674
    • April in Talladega” is a pilgrimage tour of antebellum and turn of the century homes throughout the city of Talladega.
    • Tour Blue Bell Creameries in Sylacauga
    • Butler/Harris Rainwater Museum in Childersburg.  The “Rainwater house” thought to date back to 1870s, was given to C.H. Butler by his parents as a wedding gift in 1984.  In 1993 the house was bought by the city to develop into a house-museum for the city’s history.  A popular annual event held at the museum is the Victorian tea in the month of October.
    • Central Alabama Community College of Talladega
    • g in Sylacauga
    • The Davey Allison Memorial Walk of Fame/Talladega-Texaco Walk of Fame is a one block memorial for the champion in NASCAR voted on by the fans.
    • DeSoto Caverns is the first recorded cave in the United States filled with onyx draperies and some of the largest free hanging formations up to 30 feet long.  Originally used as a Native American burial ground or “copena”, the cave was rediscovered in 1965 by a team of archeologist from the University of Alabama.  They found the skeletons of five Native Americans, one of which was a child.  There was one skeleton believed to have belonged to a man more than 7 feet tall!  Several years ago a group of Native Americans reburied the skeletons in an undisclosed portion of the cave.
    • Gravity Hill” in g where cars appear to coast uphill.  On old Highway 280 on what is now known as Gravity Hill Road towards Childersburg.
    • Jemison-Carnegie Heritage Hall in Talladega is an exhibition of both local and national artists.  They also maintain a collection of historic photographs.
    • Kymulga Grist Mill and Park in Childersburg offers the only set of such structures in Alabama that still stand where they were originally built over 140 years ago on the Talladega Creek.  Ran today as a tourist attraction by the Childersburg Heritage Committee.
    • Lake Chinnabee Recreation Area.  Near Talladega Scenic drive, this location offers camping, fishing, boating, and hiking activities.
    • Lake Howard in Sylacauga has a 15 mile mountain bike and hiking trail through the Talladega National Forest.
  • The Marianna Greene Henry Special Equestrians Program offers therapy “to enhance physical and mental skills, aid in mobilization and promote socialization and communication.”
  • The Motor Sports Hall of Fame is a self guided tour of the awards given in motor sports.  Also access to the McCaig-Wellborn Motorsports Research Library, namely “the most comprehensive collection on motor sports information on earth.”
  • The Ritz Theater in Talladega offering many different scheduled acts is considered one of the best surviving examples of the Art Deco Main street theaters of 1930s, this one dating to 1936.

 

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