Fort Payne History
A brief historical overview of the origins of what was once called "Wills Town". (more)
Fort Payne Stockyard
Check out the sounds and photos from the auction of cattle stock held each and every Tuesday.
"Boom Days" in
Fort Payne, Alabama
February 1889-August 1890
Many thanks to Ms. Majorie Ferguson, one of our our local historians and owner of the original glass plate negatives, for allowing these photos to be displayed
The "Boom Days"
The ridge nearest the city, and upon whose slope Fort Payne is being built, is called Iron Mountain, from the great quantity of iron ore contained in it.
In a prospectus written in January 1889, the following declaration was executed in order to attract investment in Fort Payne:
"It is the intention of the stockholders of The Fort Payne Coal and Iron Company to build a manufacturing city in the Wills Valley at Fort Payne, and if the results obtained in other localities, many of them with far less advantages, can be taken as a criterion, the accomplishment of the object can readily be attained.
The Fort Payne Coal and Iron Company was organized in the fall of 1888, and after making a close examination of mineral lands in Alabama, purchased thirty-two thousand acres of land in the vicinity of Fort Payne, DeKalb County.
The company has laid the foundations broad, and surrounded the enterprise with men whose financial skill and judgement are a guarantee that the inexhaustable resources of this fine property will be carefully and fully developed, and, as a natural result of such development, a city will rise in its midst."
West of the city of Fort Payne, running parallel to the Lookout and Sand Mountain ranges, is a series of ridges from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet in height, and well covered with forest trees.
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