Lauderdale County Alabama is located is the extreme northwest county of Alabama. It’s population is 92,709 and its county seat is Florence Alabama. Its name is in honor of Colonel James Lauderdale, of Tennessee. Lauderdale County was established in 1818, a year before Alabama became a state, Florence, the county seat of Lauderdale County, was also established in 1818. At this time a group of investors, under the name of Cypress Land Company purchased from the government 5,515 acres of land consisting of the original town site.
Lauderdale County Alabama, boasting a $10 million yearly income from its farms and many additional millions from its payrolls, stands on the threshold of a great era of progress. No area in the entire nation holds greater promise or offers more in good living, health, and contentment.
Union Brig. Gen. James H. Wilson crosses the rain-swollen Tennessee River at Gravelly Springs in Lauderdale County, Alabama. Maj. Gen. James Harrison Wilson, U.S. Army, assembled the largest cavalry force ever massed in the western hemisphere. Five divisions totaling 22,000 camped from Gravelly Springs westward to Waterloo, Alabama.
Waterloo Landing, located on Pickwick Lake (the former Tennessee River), was the site where, in July 1838, the 700-person Cherokee detachment led by Captain Gustavus S. Drane ended its 230-mile overland migration on the Trail Of Tears, boarded the steamboat Smelter, and left on the water route to Indian Territory. Here the party was united and set out on the eleventh aboard the steamboat SMELTER and two large double decked keel boats; the next afternoon they reached Paducah, Kentucky, where Lieutenant Deas left one of the keel boats which he found superfluous. He succeeded in mustering the Indians after a fashion and found that he had 489. (Grant Foreman, Indian Removal: The Emigration of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indians, Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1956 (copyright 1932), p.291)
Captain G.S. Drane to Major General Winfield Scott — October 17, 1838
Cherokee Agency, Tennessee
17th October 1838
… on my arrival at Waterloo, Alabama I was ordered to muster the company out of the service, to discharge my teams & embark on board the Steamboat Smelter & proceed to Fort Gibson by the way of the Arkansas river, I believed that route unhealthy, & requested Gel Smith to allow me to take the route by Boonesville, Missouri, the route selected previous to the party’s leaving Ross’ Landing.
Waterloo, Alabama is a Best Small Town in Alabama located in Northwest Alabama. Waterloo is surrounded by stunning views of the Tennessee River on gorgeous Pickwick lake.
The Lauderdale Wildlife Management Area is an Alabama Wildlife Management Area (WMA) operated by the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in Lauderdale County, Alabama near Waterloo, Alabama. Waterloo, Alabama Facebook page.
Florence is the merger point for two major U.S. Highways, as well as several Alabama Highways. Both U.S. Highway 43 and U.S. Highway 72 merge just east of the city limits in Killen, and are co-signed their entire length through the city.
Highway 43, running north and south, helps connect the city to Lawrenceburg and Columbia to the north in Tennessee, as well as Tuscaloosa and Mobile to the south. Highway 72 helps connect the city to Huntsville and Chattanooga, Tennessee to the east and Memphis, Tennessee to the west.
Interstate 65 is accessible about forty-five minutes east on Highway 72. Both of these roads cross the Tenneessee River on O’Neal Bridge, connecting Florence to Sheffield.
