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. “The Muscle Shoals Sound” became recognizable to critics and fans, as a wide-range of artists came to Muscle Shoals to record.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Muscle Shoals district of the Tennessee Valley, c. 1933. (Spencer & Wyckoff, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

The Muscle Shoals canal project was authorized in 1831, but construction was abandoned in 1837. The project was revived in 1873 and completed in 1890. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of Alabama Department of Archives and History)

A riverboat is seen locking through at Wilson Dam on the Tennessee River in Lauderdale and Colbert counties in 1935. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Tennessee Valley Authority)

Construction of the U.S. Nitrate Plant No. 2, Feb. 15, 1918. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, 2010. (The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

Wilson Dam, Muscle Shoals, April 11, 1926. (Photograph by O.T. Ericson, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division)

FAME Recording Studios, 2010. (The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Old Railroad Bridge, now a walking bridge across the Tennessee River, Muscle Shoals, 2010. (The George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

The original home of the Muscle Shoals Sound Studios. (Anne Kristoff/Alabama NewsCenter)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.