Fort Payne is a city in and

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

DeKalb County DeKalb County may refer to one of several counties in the United States, all of which were named for Baron Johann de Kalb: * DeKalb County, Alabama DeKalb County is a County (United States), county in the Northeast Alabama, northeastern part ...

, in northeastern

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, United States. It is near

Lookout Mountain Lookout Mountain is a mountain ridge at the northwest corner of the U.S. state of Georgia, the northeast corner of Alabama, and along the southeastern Tennessee state line in Chattanooga. Lookout Mountain was the scene of the 18th-century "La ...

. At the 2020 census, the population was 14,877. This city developed around a fort of the same name, built in the 1830s to intern the

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

tribe who were being rounded up by the military before being forcibly removed to

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

in 1838 on what they called the

Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement of about 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850, and the additional thousands of Native Americans and their black slaves within that were ethnically cleansed by the U ...

. European-American settlers gradually developed a community around the former fort. It grew rapidly in the late 19th century based on industrial resources, and manufacturing increased in the early 20th century. At the beginning of the 21st century, it still had 7000 workers in 100 mills producing varieties of socks, nearly half the world production. The volume of production has declined because of competition from China.

History

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, this was the site of

Willstown Willstown (sometimes Wattstown, or ''Titsohili'', as it sounded in Cherokee) was an important Cherokee town of the late 18th and early 19th century, located in the southwesternmost part of the Cherokee Nation, in what is now DeKalb County, Alabama. ...

, an important town of the Lower Cherokee. They had moved south along the

Tennessee River The Tennessee River is a long river located in the Southern United States, southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. Flowing through the states of Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, it begins at the confluence of Fren ...

and into what became Alabama in an effort to escape European-American pressure. For a time this was the home of

Sequoyah Sequoyah ( ; , , or , , ; 1770 – August 1843), also known as George Gist or George Guess, was a Native American polymath and Constructed script, neographer of the Cherokee Nation. In 1821, Sequoyah completed his Cherokee syllabary, enabl ...

, a silversmith who by 1821 created the Cherokee

syllabary In the Linguistics, linguistic study of Written language, written languages, a syllabary is a set of grapheme, written symbols that represent the syllables or (more frequently) mora (linguistics), morae which make up words. A symbol in a syllaba ...

, one of the few writing systems created by an individual from a pre-literate culture. In Alabama, his people soon started publishing the first newspaper in Cherokee and English, '' The Cherokee Phoenix''. This settlement was commonly called Willstown after its headman, Will Weber, who had striking red hair. He was the son of Cherokee and German parents and raised as Cherokee. John Norton, a man born in Scotland about 1770 to Scottish and Cherokee parents, visited this area and other parts of the Cherokee homeland in 1809-1810. He had come to North America as a British soldier and became close to

Mohawk people The Mohawk, also known by their own name, (), are an Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous people of North America and the easternmost nation of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy (also known as the Five Nations or later the ...

at the Grand River Reserve in Ontario, where he served as an interpreter. During the 1830s prior to Indian removal, the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

under command of Major John Payne built a fort near Willstown to intern Cherokee from Alabama until they were forcibly removed to

(now

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

). Their forced exile became known as the

. Only a chimney of Fort Payne still stands in the downtown of the city that developed around it.

19th-20th century growth

Although European Americans had pressed for Indian removal in the Southeast because they wanted land to cultivate, by the 1860s, the city of Fort Payne and the surrounding area were only sparsely settled. Development of cotton plantations and larger settlements had taken place in the uplands region known as the Black Belt. With no strategic targets nearby, during the Civil War only minor skirmishes between Union and

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

forces took place here. About the time of the

Second Battle of Chattanooga The Second Battle of Chattanooga took place during the American Civil War, beginning on August 21, 1863, as the opening battle in the Chickamauga Campaign. The larger and more famous battles were the Battles for Chattanooga (generally referred ...

, a large Union force briefly entered the county, but it did not engage substantial Confederate forces. In 1878 the city Fort Payne was designated as the county seat, and in 1889 it was incorporated as a town. The community of

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

had served as the DeKalb county seat since 1850. With the completion of rail lines between

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

and

Chattanooga Chattanooga ( ) is a city in Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. It is located along the Tennessee River and borders Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the south. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, it is Tennessee ...

that went through Fort Payne, the city's growth was stimulated by connection to this new transportation route. County sentiment had supported having the seat in a community served by the railroad, seen as key to the future. In the late 1880s, Fort Payne's growth was stimulated after the discovery of coal and iron deposits, needed to support industrialization. Investors and especially workers from

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

and the North flooded into the region for new jobs. This period is called the "Boom Days", or simply the "Boom". Many of the notable historic buildings in Fort Payne date from this period of economic growth and prosperity, including the state's oldest standing theater, the Fort Payne Opera House; the former factory of the Hardware Manufacturing Company (today known as the W. B. Davis Mill Building, now the location of the Fort Payne Depot Museum, and formerly the passenger station for the present-day

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company was formed in 1982 with the merger of the Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. The comp ...

. Following the decline of passenger traffic in the mid-20th century as people took to automobiles, today the depot serves as a museum of local history. The iron and coal deposits were much smaller than expected. Many of the promoters left the region for

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

, which became the state's major industrial city. Fort Payne suffered a period of economic decline. In 1907, the W.B. Davis Hosiery Mill began operations, processing area cotton to produce socks and hosiery.

Hosiery Hosiery, (, ) also referred to as legwear, describes garments worn directly on the foot, feet and human leg, legs. The term originated as the collective term for products of which a maker or seller is termed a hosier; and those products are also ...

manufacture has led the economy in Fort Payne. At the beginning of the 21st century, the hosiery industry in Fort Payne employed over 7,000 people in more than 100 mills. It produced more than half of the socks made in the United States and claimed to be the "Sock Capital of the World." Beginning in the 1990s, the

North American Free Trade Agreement The North American Free Trade Agreement (, TLCAN; , ALÉNA), referred to colloquially in the Anglosphere as NAFTA, ( ) was an agreement signed by Canada, Mexico, and the United States that created a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The ...

and the

Central American Free Trade Agreement Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

lowered

tariff A tariff or import tax is a duty (tax), duty imposed by a national Government, government, customs territory, or supranational union on imports of goods and is paid by the importer. Exceptionally, an export tax may be levied on exports of goods ...

s on textile products imported into the United States, resulting in large increases in sock imports. By the early 2000s a very large, highly-efficient centre for sock production had grown up around

Datang, Zhuji Datang () is a town in Zhuji, Zhejiang Province, China. Sock City By the early 1980s, the township had a population of 1,000. Designated as an industrial development zone, it quickly developed as a hosiery industry centre, becoming known as Sock C ...

Zhejiang Province ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

, China. Raw materials and hosiery machines were also manufactured at Datang. While in Fort Payne a company might have to wait two months for a replacement part for a hosiery machine to arrive from Italy, a manufacturer in Datang would have to wait half an hour for the part to arrive from a local company. American multinational retail corporations began to source hosiery products from Datang. The American companies’ strict negotiating positions required the Datang producers to accept as little as 3% profit. As American retail corporations began to source their products from China, Datang became the new "Sock Capital of the World." Many businesses in Fort Payne accused foreign manufacturers, particularly those from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, of engaging in dumping of socks below cost to force American companies out of the sock business. By 2005, hosiery mill employment in Fort Payne had declined to around 5,500, and several mills had closed. In late 2005, the federal government gained an agreement with the Chinese government to slow the schedule for the removal of tariffs, delaying their full removal until 2008. The hosiery industry continues to have a foothold in the community, diversifying from athletic socks to boutique designs such a
Zkano
and other specialty and medical socks. In the 1990s, facing the international threat to their manufacturing, business and civic leaders in Fort Payne began to take steps to diversify the city's economy. Several new commercial and industrial projects were developed. The largest was the 2006 construction of a distribution center for

The Children's Place The Children’s Place is a retailer of clothing for children. It sells its products primarily under its proprietary brands The Children’s Place, Gymboree, Sugar & Jade, PJ Place and Crazy 8. The company has about 525 stores in the U.S., Canada ...

stores, a facility that employed 600 people in its first phase of operation. Other large corporations represented in Fort Payne include

Heil Environmental Industries Heil Environmental Industries, a subsidiary of Dover Corporation, is a manufacturer of garbage and recycling trucks. For many decades, Heil Environmental has been the chief supplier of refuse and recycling equipment for the New York City Sanita ...

(a division of Dover Industries, manufacturing sanitation trucks); Vulcraft (a division of

Nucor Nucor Corporation is an American company based in Charlotte, North Carolina, that produces steel and related products. It is the largest steel producer in the United States and the largest recycler of scrap in North America. Nucor is the 16th- ...

Corporation, manufacturing steel roofing systems); an
Game Time
(a division of Playcore, manufacturing commercial playground equipment).

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The U.S. Census Bureau is part of the U ...

, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.64%, is water. The city center lies in a narrow valley on Big Wills Creek in the Cumberland Plateau region immediately west of

, with Sand Mountain at a distance to the west. The city limits reach to the east and south so that more than half of the city's area is now located on Lookout Mountain. Drainage is through Big Wills Creek to the

Coosa River The Coosa River is a tributary of the Alabama River in the U.S. states of Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The river is about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, ac ...

. A magnitude 4.9

earthquake An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...

occurred here in 2003.

Climate

Fort Payne is notable for a subtropical climate. Winters usually feature measurable, though infrequent, snow. Cloudmont Ski Resort on Lookout Mountain generates man-made snow as winter temperatures permit. The area is subject to occasional tornadoes. The city's northern side was struck by F3 and F4 tornadoes February 29, 1952 and May 19, 1973, respectively, both of which caused considerable damage. Exactly ten years later, a tornado struck the city again. In the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1994, an F3 tornado passed just west of the city Occasionally, a hurricane that has made landfall in the Gulf of Mexico will reach Fort Payne as a tropical storm or tropical depression. However, in 1995 the eye of

Hurricane Opal Hurricane Opal was a large and powerful tropical cyclone that caused severe and extensive damage along the northern Gulf Coast of the United States in October 1995. The fifteenth named storm, ninth hurricane and strongest tropical cyclone of th ...

reached Fort Payne with hurricane-force winds. The 1993

Storm of the Century ''Storm of the Century'', alternatively known as ''Stephen King's Storm of the Century'', is a 1999 American horror television miniseries written by Stephen King and directed by Craig R. Baxley. Unlike many other television adaptations of Kin ...

dumped more than of snow on Fort Payne, immobilizing the city and the surrounding area for days. The

Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

subtype for this climate is "Cfa". (Humid Subtropical Climate).

Demographics

2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 14,877 people, 5,066 households, and 3,219 families residing in the city.

2010 census

Fort Payne had at the 2010 census a population of 14,012. There were 5,296 households. The racial makeup of the population was 72.0% non-Hispanic white, 4.2% black or African American, 0.9% Native American, 0.8% Asian, 0.2% Pacific Islander, 0.1% non-Hispanic from some other race, 2.5% reporting two or more races and 20.9% Hispanic or Latino of any race.

2000 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 12,938 people, 5,046 households, and 3,506 families residing in the city. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...

was . There were 5,585 housing units at an average density of The racial makeup of the city was 83.22%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 4.53%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.80%

Native American Native Americans or Native American usually refers to Native Americans in the United States. Related terms and peoples include: Ethnic groups * Indigenous peoples of the Americas, the pre-Columbian peoples of North, South, and Central America ...

, 0.55% Asian, 0.16%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 8.41% from other races, and 2.33% from two or more races. 12.17% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. There were 5,046 households, out of which 31.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.9% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 11.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 30.5% were non-families. 26.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 2.97. In the city, the population was spread out, with 23.4% under the age of 18, 10.2% from 18 to 24, 29.3% from 25 to 44, 21.6% from 45 to 64, and 15.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.5 males. The median income for a household in the city was $33,560, and the median income for a family was $40,200. Males had a median income of $29,731 versus $20,135 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $19,690. About 8.3% of families and 12.3% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 15.0% of those under age 18 and 17.6% of those age 65 or over.

Arts and culture

The ruins of the old Fort Payne are visible in the historic downtown of the city. The

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

has headquarters here for the nearby

Little River Canyon National Preserve Little River Canyon National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located on top of Lookout Mountain near Fort Payne, Alabama, and DeSoto State Park. Created by an Act of Congress in 1992, the preserve protects what is sometimes sai ...

, a protected area established by Congress in 1992. The canyon is on

outside the city limits. Another natural attraction is

DeSoto State Park DeSoto State Park is a public recreation area located on Lookout Mountain, northeast of Fort Payne, Alabama. The state park covers of forest, rivers, waterfalls, and mountain terrain. It borders the Little River, which flows into the nearby Li ...

. While smaller in area, it has a lodge, restaurant, cabins, and river access areas. Manitou Cave is also near Fort Payne. The country music group

is based in Fort Payne. The city also houses the group's fan club and museum. Fort Payne is within a 30-minute drive of substantial water recreational areas, notably

Guntersville Lake Guntersville Lake (generally referred to locally as Lake Guntersville) is an artificial lake in northern Alabama between Bridgeport and Guntersville. Location The lake stretches 75 miles (121 km) from Guntersville Dam to Nickajack Dam. It i ...

and

Weiss Lake Weiss Lake in northeastern Alabama is owned and operated by the Alabama Power Company.Coosa River The Coosa River is a tributary of the Alabama River in the U.S. states of Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. The river is about long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, ac ...

. Fort Payne is also near Mentone, a popular mountain resort area known for summer children's camps, rustic hotels, restaurants, and cabins.

Education

Fort Payne is served by the Fort Payne City Schools system. Schools in the district include Wills Valley Elementary (K-2), Little Ridge Intermediate (3-5) Fort Payne Middle School (6-8), and Fort Payne High School (9-12). Brian Jett is the Superintendent of Education.

Media

*Radio stations ** WFPA-AM 1400 (

News News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the te ...

Talk Talk may refer to: Communication * Communication, the encoding and decoding of exchanged messages between people * Conversation, interactive communication between two or more people * Lecture, an oral presentation intended to inform or instruct ...

) ** WZOB-AM 1250 (

Country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

) *Newspapers **''The

Times-Journal ''The Times-Journal'' newspaper is published twice a week in Fort Payne, Alabama and serves the DeKalb County, Alabama region. The Times-Journal was a Southern Newspapers publication for 60 years before selling to Patrick Graham in 2019, along ...

'' **'' The Dekalb Advertiser'' **''Southern Torch''

Infrastructure

Health care

*DeKalb Regional Medical Center- 134-bed facility

Transportation

Interstate 59 Interstate 59 (I-59) is an Interstate Highway located in the southeastern United States. It is a north–south route that spans from a junction with I-10 and I-12 at Slidell, Louisiana, to a junction with I-24 near Wildwood, Georgia ...

* U.S. Highway 11 *

Alabama State Route 35 State Route 35 (SR 35) is a state highway in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Alabama. The southern terminus of the highway is at its intersection with SR 9 in rural Cherokee County northeast of Cedar Bluff and near ...

Isbell Field (municipal airport)

Notable people

Miles C. Allgood Miles Clayton Allgood (February 22, 1878 – March 4, 1977) was an American politician and a United States Representative from Alabama. Biography Born in Chepultepec (now Allgood, Alabama, Allgood), Blount County, Alabama, Allgood was the son of ...

(1878–1977),

U.S. congressman The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

* Mark E. Biddle,

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

scholar *

Harry B. Brock, Jr. Harry B. Brock Jr. (March 31, 1925 – July 29, 2015) was an American banker and philanthropist. Early life Harry B. Brock Jr. was born on March 31, 1925, in Fort Payne, Alabama.

, banker and philanthropist * Weston Burt, country music singer *

David Brown (translator) David Brown (Cherokee: ''A-wih'') (c.1790 – September 14, 1829) was a Cherokee clergyman and translator who worked in Mississippi as a missionary to the Cherokee. As a youth, he was educated in schools for Native Americans in Tennessee and Con ...

, Cherokee interpreter and missionary *

Jeff Cook Jeffrey Alan Cook (August 27, 1949 – November 7, 2022) was an American country musician. He was best known for being a founding member of the band Alabama, in which he contributed to occasional lead vocals, guitar, fiddle, piano and other mus ...

, Teddy Gentry, and

Randy Owen Randy Yeuell Owen (born December 13, 1949) is an American country musician. He is best known for his role as the lead singer of Alabama, a country rock band that saw commercial success throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Alabama became the most su ...

, founders of the

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

band

* Thomas H. Cook, mystery writer *Lt. Gen. Duward Crow (1919–1997), Assistant Vice Chief of Staff,

USAF The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

and Associate Deputy Administrator,

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

*James Dean, author, artist (

Pete the Cat Pete the Cat is a fictional cartoon cat created by American artist James Dean. The series started with four books illustrated by Dean and with text by Eric Litwin; since then, James Dean and his wife Kimberly Dean have written and illustrated t ...

) * Jerry Ellis, author *

Howard Finster Howard Finster (December 2, 1916 – October 22, 2001) was an American artist and Baptist minister from Georgia. He claimed to be inspired by God to spread the gospel through the design of his swampy land into Paradise Garden, a folk art scu ...

, religious

folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...

ist and

Baptist minister Baptists are a denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers ( believer's baptism) and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches generally subscribe to the doctrines of ...

*Flock Family (

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top ranked motorsports organizations in ...

drivers) **

Bob Flock Robert Newman Flock (April 16, 1918 – May 16, 1964) was an American stock car racing, stock car racer. He qualified on the pole position for NASCAR's 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock Series inaugural race, first Strictly Stock (now NASCAR Cup Ser ...

(1918–1964) **

Fonty Flock Truman Fontell "Fonty" Flock (March 21, 1921 – July 15, 1972) was an American stock car racer. Flock family He was the brother of NASCAR pioneers Tim Flock and Bob Flock, and the second female NASCAR driver Ethel Mobley. The four ra ...

(1921–1972) **

Tim Flock Julius Timothy Flock (May 11, 1924 – March 31, 1998) was an American stock car racer. He was a two-time NASCAR series champion. His brothers Bob and Fonty Flock also raced in NASCAR, as did his sister Ethel Mobley, NASCAR's second female d ...

(1924–1998) **

Ethel Mobley Ethel Ann Mobley (née Flock; March 8, 1914 – June 26, 1984) of Fort Payne, Alabama was tied for the second female to drive in NASCAR history. Her brother Tim Flock said she was named after the gasoline her father used in his car. "Flying Floc ...

(1920–1984) * Milford W. Howard, congressman and author *

Sheila LaBarre Sheila LaBarre (born Sheila Kay Bailey on July 4, 1958) is an American murderer and possible serial killer. She was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, with no prospect of parole after being convicted of killing two men, Kenneth Countie a ...

, convicted murderer *Lt. Gen. Forrest S. McCartney,

, and director of the

John F. Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

James McKinney James McKinney (April 14, 1852 – September 29, 1934) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois. Biography Born in Oquawka, Illinois, McKinney attended the public schools of Lewis County High School and was given the nickname of "Downey" from ...

5-string banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

player *

Evan McPherson Evan McPherson ; (born July 21, 1999) is an American professional football placekicker for the Cincinnati Bengals of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Florida Gators before being drafted by the Bengals in th ...

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

player *

Larry Nelson Larry Gene Nelson (born September 10, 1947) is an American professional golfer. He has won numerous tournaments at both the PGA Tour and Champions Tour level. Early life and amateur career Nelson was born in Fort Payne, Alabama and grew up in ...

, professional golfer *

Philip Ober Philip Nott Ober (March 23, 1902 – September 13, 1982) was an American screen and stage actor who later retired from performing to be a foreign service diplomat. Ober is best remembered for his roles in the films '' From Here to Eternity'' ( ...

, actor *

Lilius Bratton Rainey Lilius Bratton Rainey (July 27, 1876 – September 27, 1959) was a U.S. Representative from Alabama. Biography He was born in Dadeville, Alabama on July 27, 1876. Rainey attended the common schools and moved to Fort Payne, Alabama. He graduated ...

, congressman * Ron Sparks, Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries, 2010 Democratic gubernatorial nominee *

Edward Stinson Edward Anderson ("Eddie") Stinson, Jr. (July 11, 1893 – January 26, 1932) was an American pilot and aircraft manufacturer.Longyard, William H.: ''Who's Who in Aviation History: 500 Biographies,'' 1994, Airlife, Shewsbury, England, pp.177-178; ...

, aviator and founder of the

Stinson Aircraft Company The Stinson Aircraft Company was an aircraft manufacturing company in the United States between the 1920s and the 1950s. History The Stinson Aircraft Company was founded in Dayton, Ohio, in 1920 by aviator Edward Stinson, Edward “Eddie” ...

Katherine Stinson Katherine Stinson (February 14, 1891 – July 8, 1977) was an American aviation pioneer who, in 1912, became the fourth woman in the United States to earn the FAI pilot certificate. She set flying records for aerobatic maneuvers, distance, a ...

, pioneer aviator, fourth woman in the U.S. to become a licensed pilot; sister of Edward Stinson

Local facts

For a time beginning in 1989, Fort Payne held the world record for "Largest Cake Ever Baked", for a cake of baked to commemorate the city's centennial."Biggest and Most and Devoured in the U.S.A.," ''The New York Times'', July 3, 1991

References

External links

City of Fort Payne official website
{{authority control Cities in Alabama Populated places established in 1889 Cities in DeKalb County, Alabama Micropolitan areas of Alabama County seats in Alabama U.S. Route 11