December 10, 1886
The town of Heflin was incorporated on this day in 1886 and has a mayor-council form of government. Nestled between the southern range of the Appalachian Mountains and the Georgia border in northeast Alabama, Heflin is the seat of Cleburne County. Heflin was named for physician Wilson L. Heflin, the father of James Thomas Heflin, who served as U.S. senator from Alabama from 1920-31. Settlers from Georgia and South Carolina largely developed the area. Heflin touches the northern portion of the Talladega National Forest above Interstate 20 and as headquarters of the Shoal Creek Ranger District has many opportunities for boating, camping, fishing, hiking, horseback riding and hunting.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
An early-twentieth-century photograph of community members gathered in front of the high school in Heflin, Cleburne County. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Alabama Department of Archives and History)
Gravesite of Dr. Wilson L. Heflin. (Photograph by William Fischer, Jr., findagrave.com)
Gravesite of Dr. Wilson L. Heflin. (Photograph by William Fischer, Jr., findagrave.com)
Heflin, located in western Cleburne County, became the county in 1905 when voters and the Alabama Supreme Court called for its relocation from Edwardsville, to the northeast. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of The Birmingham News)
Coleman Lake, located in the Coleman Lake Recreation Area, is a 21-acre lake with beach access and camping in Talladega National Forest near the town of Heflin, Cleburne County. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service)
Cleburne County Courthouse, 2012. (Rivers Langley, SaveRivers, Wikipedia)
Heflin, AL, 2012. (Rivers Langley, SaveRivers, Wikipedia)
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
