Fort Payne: Coolest Place in Alabama and more
By Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com AL.com
Fort Payne, AL /series Aka Story Package gallery-preview /gallery-preview Aka Secondary Package
/storypackage The small DeKalb County town of Fort Payne, home to about 14,000 people, has been known as many things over the years: A Cherokee village, a stop on the Trail of Tears, "Sock Capital of the World," a tourist stop on Lookout Mountain, and birthplace of three founding members of the country group, Alabama.
Although it is still home to members of Alabama and still a great place for hiking or boating against mountain scenery, its days as the largest sock and hosiery producer are behind it, after the majority of manufacturers were forced out of business in the 1990s by the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The town's Hosiery Museum, located in a historic downtown building, is a reminder of those boom days, but Fort Payne residents are accustomed to rebranding themselves. The town's initial "boom" occurred in the late 1880s, when deposits of coal and iron were found nearby. Investors flocked to the town from New England and, before the deposits petered out, helped build some of the town's surviving buildings, including the 1889 Fort Payne Opera House, the 1884 Hardware Manufacturing Co./W.B. Davis Mill and the 1894 depot that served the Southern Railway. Today it houses a museum.
Willstown and the Trail of Tears
These days, the site of a Cherokee mission and school has been preserved to teach people about the history of the area, when Fort Payne was known as the Cherokee village of Willstown, or Wills Town, an important trade stop. In 1823, it was chosen as the site for the fifth mission and school to be built by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions which was organized to bring education and Christianity to natives.
It was at this site that Sequoyah would develop an 86-letter alphabet, making the Cherokee "the only Native American tribe to develop and use a written language of their own," according to the Fort Payne Chamber of Commerce.
A cemetery at the site may predate the school. One of the most prominent burials is that of the Rev. Ard Hoyt, who ran the mission from 1823 until his death in 1828. Graves for Cherokee were marked with natural stones and cedar stumps while traditional headstones were used on graves of white settlers.
The fort
There was, at one time, a fort at Fort Payne. The chamber wrote: "Capt. John G. Payne arrived in Fort Payne in, then known as Willstown, in February 1838 and approved a site for an Indian stockade near Big Springs. In March, Capt. James H. Rogers, commanding 20 men and two officers, garrisoned at Big Spring and built the stockade which he named Fort Payne in honor of his friend, Capt. Payne. The Cherokee were rounded up and held in the stockade ... until they began their forced march West, the famous Trail of Tears."
The musical legend of Alabama
Alabama is a country group formed in 1969 by cousins Randy Owen, Teddy Gentry and Jeff Cook. Alabama is among the best-selling bands in the world, selling more than 75 million albums and singles, and has received more awards than any other country group.
The headquarters for the band, which includes a museum, gift ship and fan club offices, is at 101 Glenn Boulevard SW in Fort Payne. It is open from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 1- 5p.m. on Sundays.
Life-size bronze statues of Owen, Gentry, Cook and a fourth band member, Mark Herndon, stand across from the Fort Payne Opera House downtown.
Lookout Mountain
The Chamber of Commerce bills Fort Payne as the "Coolest Place in Alabama" because of its temperate climate, with an average temperature of 70 degrees. It is located in a narrow valley just west of Lookout Mountain, offering close proximity to Little River Canyon and DeSoto State Park for hiking, biking, camping and horseback riding.
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