HISTORY
The
aboriginal populations of the Tennessee Valley had extensive populations
throughout the Alabama portions of the basin. Evidence of these populations
can be dated to 12,000 years ago and lasted until just before the end of the
prehistoric era, about 1400-1500 A.D.
The Cherokees referred to the Tennessee River as the “Hogoheegee” or “Big
River.” (Paddling the Tennessee River)
During the Civil War the Tennessee River served as a strategic invasion
route into the West Confederacy. Its development as one of the world's
greatest irrigation and hydropower systems began with the establishment in
1933 of the Tennessee Valley Authority.
NATIVE AMERICAN
The
first inhabitants of the Tennessee Basin were Paleo-Indians who were nomadic
hunters that used stone tipped spears. They gathered nuts, berries, fruits
and roots as well as fish and mussels. They cooked their food in open pits.
The Muscle Shoals area was an early settlement for Paelo-Indians because the
Tennessee Valley lies at the southern edge of the hardwood forests where
nuts, acorns and game were plentiful and the climate warmer. However the
abundance of fish and mussels might have been the most significant factor
for their settlement.
When Europeans first began to enter into the Alabama portion of the
Tennessee Basin in the 18th century there were three Native
American tribes that inhabited the region.
In general, the Tennessee served as the dividing line between the Chickasaws
and the Cherokees at Muscle Shoals. (Lore)
The
Chickasaws,
a relatively small tribe, ranged from north Mississippi, eastern Tennessee,
southwest Kentucky and into northwest Alabama. The Chickasaws were fierce
warriors and almost wiped out DeSoto’s expedition in Mississippi in 1541
when he tried to enslave 200 Chickasaw warriors to serve as load carriers.
They inscribed their bodies with indelible ink.
“It
has been said that history records no group of people on any continent at
any time who were cleaner than the Chickasaw.” They would bathe every day,
summer and winter, and were known to break the ice at the river bank so they
could enter the water to bathe. Some believe this high regard for
cleanliness is one reason the Chicksasaws sided with the English traders as
opposed to the French and the Spanish.
One of the best known Chickasaw chiefs during the years of European and
American occupation was Chief George Colbert (“Kahl-burt”) who was half
Chickasaw and half Scot. In 1798 he operated a critical ferry across the
otherwise uncrossable Tennessee that came to be known as Colbert’s Ferry.
This ferry, located at the mouth of Bear Creek, was the only crossing for
the famed trade route the Natchez Trace, a former buffalo run. His father,
James Colbert, was a legend in his own right. A Scotsman who lived amongst
the Chickasaws, adopting their ways and even joining them in battle, he took
on three Chickasaw brides and fathered eight children, many of whom, like
George, gained notoriety amongst the Chickasaws.
George Colbert, who went on to serve as the chief of the Chickasaws for 12
years, and one of his brothers served under General Andrew Jackson during
his campaigns against the Creeks. The Chickasaws trusted and admired Andrew
Jaskson who saw rewarded their loyalty by seeing to it that they were
removed from their ancestral home.
In 1774 the Chickasaws refused the Henderson Land Company access to the
mouth of Occochapo Creek (present day Bear Creek).
After the treaty of 1816, most of the Chickasaws land was ceded to the U.S.
The
Cherokees occupied northeast Alabama, and much of Tennessee and
northwest Georgia. A few of their villages settled at Muscle Shoals and
represented the southwestern tip of their domain.
(Lore)
Perhaps the most interesting of the Cherokee chiefs in the Tennessee Basin
of Alabama was Chief Doublehead or Talo Tiske meaning “two heads.”
Chief Doublehead established a town on the Tennessee River at the head of
Muscle Shoals in 1790. This village sat at the mouth of Blue Water Creek in
Lauderdale County.
Muscle Shoals had always been an area of dispute between Chickasaws and
Cherokees, though it was known as “Chickasaw Hunting Grounds.” When
Doubleheads occupation of Muscle Shoals came into question, Chief George
Colbert of the Chickasaws confirmed that Doublehead was at Muscle Shoals by
his permission. This new agreement seems less unusual considering that
Colbert had married two of Doublehead’s daughters.
Doublehead’s brother was Chief Old Tassel, one of the Cherokees most
well-known and beloved chiefs. When he was murdered with the aid of the
white mayor James Hubbert, Doublehead went on the rampage, attacking white
settlers throughout the Cumberland Mountains of Tennessee. This six year
warpath from 1788 to 1794 is well chronicled, and though it was no doubt
exaggerated by the afflicted, the chiefs terrible “atrocities” certainly add
up to a significant sum. He was even accused of encouraging his warriors to
cannibalism of the dead during this escapade.
At the end of his warpath, Doublehead met with President George Washington
at the nation’s capital, and he returned a changed man. Though he began to
mimic the ways of the whites and built a large cabin, he continued to defend
the Cherokees land rights in various treaties until his death. This change
of heart was characteristic of the Cherokees during this time, many of whom
adopted the manners and customs of the whites. He even went as far as
forming the Doublehead Company that leased 1,000 acres to more than 50 white
settlers between the Elk River and Cypress Creek.
Doublehead was murdered in a savagely interesting tale chronicled by the
famous Indian canoe fighter, Sam Dale. On a trip to a ball game on the
Hiwasee River, Doublehead engaged in a series of arguments with two Cherokee
warriors and a white Indian trader.
The Creek Nation (a confederacy of Musckogean tribes) inhabited parts
of present day Colbert and Lauderdale counties for a time during the late 18th
century. The Creeks were known for their ruthlessness in battle, mutilating
the bodies of fallen enemies by cutting off the arms and the legs and
removing the scalp by cutting a circle around the head just above the ears.
They adorned their bodies with shell jewelry and freshwater pearls obtained
from the large mussel populations of the Tennessee.
In general, the Tennessee basin served as the dividing line between the
Chickasaws and the Cherokees at the Muscle Shoals area.
About 1,000 years before the establishment of Florence 1818 (located at the
top of the hill), there was a thriving community at the bottom of the hill.
The ceremonial mound there was called “Wawmanona” by the Indians and was
built between 400 A.D. and 1500 A.D. (Lore)
ANTEBELLUM
Small towns slowly became river ports and ferries across the
river were quite common. Many of these ferry sites have small histories of
their own.
In 1819 Alabama was admitted into the Union as a state and Huntsville was
designated as its first capital and seat of the state constitutional
convention.
The Moulton Valley was an important southern fruit supplier, and so much
grain was produced in this area that it became known as the South’s “Cereal
Belt.”
During the Civil War, many battles were fought throughout Alabama’s
Tennessee Basin, including many led by Confederate General Nathan Bedford
Forrest.
Ulysses S. Grant made his first marks upon the Civil War by understanding
the strategic importance of the river at his first victories at Fort Henry
and Fort Donelson on the nearby Cumberland tributary to the upper Tennessee.
INDUSTRIAL
Many
of the Civil War’s Union troops, upon discovering the rich untapped
resources of the area returned to the region following the war’s conclusion.
Tennessee Valley
Authority - TVA
The
Great Depression of the ‘30s set the stage for the creation of the Tennessee
Valley Authority, an entity that would bring the most rapid and dramatic
change the Tennessee had ever experienced. Created in 1933 by Franklin
Roosevelt, the Tennessee Valley Authority was a bold and idealistic solution
to the poverty and isolation facing inhabitants of the Tennessee Valley.
Part of Roosevelt’s New Deal, one of the most important short term
accomplishments of the TVA was the creation of much needed jobs.
1930s
Even by
Depression standards, the Tennessee Valley was in sad shape in 1933. Much of
the land had been farmed too hard for too long, eroding and depleting the
soil. Crop yields had fallen along with farm incomes. The best timber had
been cut. TVA developed fertilizers, taught farmers how to improve crop
yields, and helped replant forests, control forest fires, and improve
habitat for wildlife and fish. The most dramatic change in Valley life came
from the electricity generated by TVA dams. Electric lights and modern
appliances made life easier and farms more productive. Electricity also drew
industries into the region, providing desperately needed jobs.
1940s
During World War II, the United States needed aluminum to build bombs and
airplanes, and aluminum plants required electricity. To provide power for
such critical war industries, TVA engaged in one of the largest hydropower
construction programs ever undertaken in the United States. Early in 1942,
when the effort reached its peak, 12 hydroelectric projects and a steam
plant were under construction at the same time, and design and construction
employment reached a total of 28,000.
1950s
By the end of the war, TVA had completed a 650-mile (1,050-kilometer)
navigation channel the length of the Tennessee River and had become the
nation’s largest electricity supplier. Even so, the demand for electricity
was outstripping TVA’s capacity to produce power from hydroelectric dams.
Political interference kept TVA from securing additional federal
appropriations to build coal-fired plants, so it sought the authority to
issue bonds. Congress passed legislation in 1959 to make the TVA power
system self-financing, and from that point on it would pay its own way.
1960s
The 1960s were years of unprecedented economic growth in the Tennessee
Valley. Farms and forests were in better shape than they had been in
generations. Electric rates were among the nation’s lowest and stayed low as
TVA brought larger, more efficient generating units into service. Expecting
the Valley’s electric power needs to continue to grow, TVA began building
nuclear plants as a new source of economical power.
1970s and 1980s
Significant
changes occurred in the economy of the Tennessee Valley and the nation,
prompted by an international oil embargo in 1973 and accelerating fuel costs
later in the decade. The average cost of electricity in the Tennessee Valley
increased fivefold from the early 1970s to the early 1980s. With energy
demand dropping and construction costs rising, TVA canceled several nuclear
plants, as did other utilities around the nation.
To become more
competitive, TVA began improving efficiency and productivity while cutting
costs. By the late 1980s, TVA had stopped the rise in power rates and paved
the way for a period of rate stability that would last for the next decade.
1990s
As the electric-utility industry moves toward restructuring, TVA is
preparing for competition. In recent years it has cut operating costs by
nearly $800 million a year, reduced its workforce by more than half,
increased the generating capacity of its plants, stopped building nuclear
plants, and developed a plan to meet the energy needs of the Tennessee
Valley through the year 2020.
Today, as the
electric power industry restructures, TVA continues to provide its core
product—wholesale electric power—competitively, efficiently and reliably. It
sets a standard for public responsibility against which private companies
can be measured.
Although TVA’s
production costs were third-lowest among the nation’s 25 largest electric
utilities in 1997, according to Electric Light & Power magazine, it
continues to look for new ways to reduce costs even more and improve
efficiency. TVA is on track to align the cost of its power with future
competitive rates, in accordance with its 10-year business plan. TVA also
has initiated a Business Transformation program to further reduce costs, and
is moving to more flexible contracts with its distributor customers to meet
their needs in a competitive marketplace.
In 1998 TVA
unveiled a new clean-air strategy to reduce the pollutants that cause ozone
and smog. The initiative will cut annual nitrogen-oxide emissions from TVA’s
coal-fired plants by approximately 170,000 tons a year. Modern equipment,
representing an investment of $600 million, will help states and cities in
the Tennessee Valley meet new, more stringent air-quality standards while
providing greater flexibility for industrial and economic growth in the
region. TVA earlier invested more than $2 billion to reduce sulfur-dioxide
and nitrogen-oxide emissions.
(Tennessee Valley Authority website)
