On This Day In Alabama History: Muscle Shoals Was Incorporated

By Alabama NewsCenter Staff

April 24, 1923

Now known as one of the seminal spots in American rock, pop, country and blues, Muscle Shoals was not much of anything but farmland a century ago. Deep into World War I, there was a need to support a couple of nitrate plants with power, and President Woodrow Wilson ordered construction of a dam to provide electricity. The dam wasn’t finished by the time the war ended, but by that point the construction boom and speculation had attracted outside industrial interest, including Henry Ford’s desire to build a car plant that could use the dam. Although Congress rejected Ford’s plan, there were enough people in the area to warrant organization. On April 24, 1923, Muscle Shoals officially incorporated.

Not long after, the Tennessee Valley Authority brought big projects to the area, such as commissioning a series of locks along the Tennessee River, which made commercial shipping possible. In the 1950s and ’60s, recording studios brought worldwide acclaim to the Shoals, with the opening of FAME Studios and the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. “The Muscle Shoals Sound” became recognizable to critics and fans, and artists as wide-ranging as Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, Cher, Rod Stewart, Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, Bob Dylan and The Oak Ridge Boys came to Muscle Shoals to record.Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

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