Fort Payne and Little River Canyon National Preserve

Last Updated on January 29, 2024 by Ranchers

Fort Payne

Fort Payne sits in the northeast corner of Alabama about an hour and a half north of Birmingham along 159. It also serves as the gateway to the Little River Canyon Preserve. The preserve sits on top of Lookout Mountain protecting the country’s longest mountain waterway, the Little River. It makes for a spectacular drive by motorcycle and offers some hiking and excellent water activities.
The town of Fort Payne strikes me as the type of place that has just missed making its mark on the world, but continues to reinvent itself in search of hitting pay dirt. I say that as a positive with respect to the pioneer spirit, or maybe just the American spirit in general.

The original settlement of Willstown was an important Cherokee town along the Native American trade path. Fort Payne was built near the town in response to the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The fort was built to intern the Cherokee from Willstown prior to their forced removal in what would become known as ‘The Trail of Tears’. Present day Fort Payne has grown out those two locations.

Railroads connecting Birmingham to Chattanooga passed through Fort Payne bringing some growth and prosperity. Discovery of coal and iron discovered in the late 1880’s began the ‘Boom’ period with a massive influx of workers from New England, but the boom was short lived. The deposits were much smaller than expected and most of the industrialists headed to the greener pastures of Birmingham.
Twenty years later, W.B. Davis Hosiery Mill began operations. At its height, the hosiery industry in Fort Payne employed over 7,000 people in more than 100 mills and produced more than half of the socks made in the United States. Fort Payne officially struck its claim as the “Sock Capital of the World.” Again, fate would intervene to knock Fort Payne down. Although the hosiery industry drove the towns success for much longer than the coal boom (almost 90 years), the North American Free Trade Agreement and Central American Free Trade Agreement would allow for the massive influx of Chinese products, decimating the industry in Fort Payne.
Today, the community has actively worked to diversify it’s industrial base and tourism plays a key role with DeSoto State Park and Little River Canyon National Preserve both in close proximity.

History aside, Fort Payne has a typically thriving touristy Main Street with a variety of restaurants, cafe’s and curio shops to occupy your time. There are also Pete the Cat sightings nearly everywhere in the downtown. Unbeknownst to me, the uncultured rube, Pete the Cat is apparently a global phenomenon with over 100 books, an Amazon series, and fans like Leonardo DiCaprio. The co-creator and illustrator of the series, James Dean, graduated from Fort Payne High School and still comes to town on the regular.

Not to be outdone, the band Alabama has also staked out a corner of Main Street with life sized bronze statues. Alabama was formed in Fort PAyne by three cousins Jeff Cook, Randy Owen, and Teddy Gentry. They left Fort Payne and headed to Myrtle Beach, SC playing as the house band at a bar called the Bowery.

They eventually added drummer Mark Herndon, signed a record deal, and became the biggest stars of country music ever. Herndon is a native of Springfield, MA by the way. Shout out to the almost hometown. Not necessarily a huge country music fan, I was pretty shocked to learn they had twenty-one consecutive number one singles. They also sold 73 million albums, not too shabby.

Little River Canyon National Preserve

Just up the hill from Fort Payne sits Little River Canyon National Preserve at the top of Lookout Mountain. The 15,288-acre preserve protects possibly the nation’s longest mountaintop river, The Little River flows for almost its entire length along the middle of Lookout Mountain in northeast Alabama and over tens of thousands of years has carved out one of the Southeast’s deepest canyons. The canyon makes for a fun and scenic drive, especially if you are on a motorcycle.

Highway 176 is a twenty-five mile stretch of road taking you from the Visitors Center to Route 68 near Collinsville. By far the most scenic and entertaining portion of the road begins at the visitors center and ends at Eberhardt Point. Along the way there are several other lookout points providing great views of the canyon, but the drive alone takes you right along the edge of the canyon with plenty of twists and turns.

Once upon a time, Eberhardt Point had a chairlift that would take you over the canyon. Today, only remnants of the chairlift and concession stand remain at the bottom of what used to be a paved trail. Now, it is a pretty steep washed out gulley.

The top of the point has a restroom and some picnic tables to enjoy a little rest after you’ve made the climb back to the top of the mountain. The water is very calm in this section and there were several families swimming in some of the deeper sections, but we satisfied ourselves with taking our shoes off and wading for a little bit.

The canyon floor begins at Little River Falls and is an easily accessible boardwalk less than a mile long from the parking lot. If the water levels aren’t too high, the base of the waterfall makes for a great swimming hole, although it does require some sense of adventure to traverse the rocks to get to the water.

Travelling in the other direction from the parking lot will take you on Little Falls Trail, also known as Martha’s Falls.

This is a trail of about a mile with the last section a fairly steep descent to the water. The payoff is worth it as it is a very popular area to swim or play in the water. There are plenty of places to just sit on the rocks and dip your toes if you don’t want to take the full plunge.