Tag: Tuscumbia

Tuscumbia is a city in and the county seat of Colbert County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 7,856 and is included in The Shoals MSA.
Tuscumbia was the hometown of Helen Keller and is the location of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
The town was incorporated in 1820 as Occocopoosa and is one of Alabama’s oldest towns. In 1821, its name was changed to Big Spring and in 1822 to Tuscumbia.
Although shoals on the nearby Tennessee River made the river nearly impassable, a Federal Highway completed in 1820 provided the area with good access to markets. Tuscumbia soon became the center for agriculture in Northern Alabama. A line to the town on the Tuscumbia, Courtland and Decatur Railroad was completed in 1832 and by 1850, Tuscumbia was a major railroad hub for train traffic throughout the South.
Tuscumbia became the county seat for Colbert County in 1867.
During the Civil War, the railroad hub made Tuscumbia a target of the Union Army, which destroyed the…