Fort Payne, AL

A little over a month ago, I was able to spend a couple of days out of town as a reset between jobs. I thought it would be nice to be outside a lot, but also didn't want to be too far away, so I landed in Fort Payne, AL. The original plan was to spend most of my time hiking in Desoto State Park, which I still did, but I ended up discovering several other delightful things around town.

A Little History

Fort Payne actually has some neat history. Their primary boom years were 1889 to 1891, when they were being connected as part of the railroad from Chattanooga to Birmingham. In addition to being situated directly on the railroad, the area also contained significant coal and iron deposits, which attracted significant industry. Later, they discovered the deposits were smaller than expected, and much of the industry went to Birmingham. The boom was short-lived, but it did lead to some awesome historical buildings, like their Opera House (the state's oldest standing theater).

Socks

Fort Payne had a tough economic period after this. Their population declined by 62% (!) from the 1890 census to 1900, but the next industry to take over the city began to stir in 1907 with the founding of the W. B. Davis Hosiery Mill, which made socks and hosiery from local cotton. By the year 2000, the hosiery industry in Fort Payne employed approximately 7,000 people and produced over half of the socks in the US. They claimed to be the "sock capital of the world".

What sent me down this historical rabbit hole in the first place was seeing their Hosiery Museum in the city center. There seemingly had to be a good story behind it. Sadly, the ending is not a happy one. As the US lowered tariffs on textiles starting in the 1990s, Chinese manufacturers were able to import socks at much lower prices, making the Fort Payne mills uncompetitive. Now, the industry is far smaller, and what remains seemingly focuses on higher-end organic socks. The population in Fort Payne has remained steady, and it continues to serve as a critical distribution hub, situated between Chattanooga and Birmingham.

Main Street

On the same strip as the Opera House, they had a neat main street that was surprisingly lively. There were lots of different types of businesses, and all seemed to be doing reasonably well (a bit to my surprise). One I stopped in was The Spot Coffee Shop^[1]. The building was constructed in the early 1900s, and over time, it had served as a hardware store, an R/C car shop, and a dance studio before becoming a coffee shop. The inside had a lot of character, including an intricate ceiling and beautiful chandeliers salvaged from a local church.

Yard Sales

While driving around, something else caught my attention. Everyone seemed to have things out in their yard that they were trying to sell. Particularly on the road toward the cabin I was staying in. In the afternoon on the second day, I decided to stop by one of the setups that seemed the biggest. I struck up a conversation with one of the vendors, who was an antique vendor from Section, AL, who told me what I had stumbled upon was the world's longest yard sale. The sale runs from Gadsden, AL, to Addison, MI, covering over 690 miles! I ended up attending many yard sales after this, including some giant tent setups and large fields with numerous vendors. Along the same road, there were also some cool antique stores, such as Barnyard Antiques, which I stopped in on my way.

Conclusion

Coming back from Fort Payne, I can't quite put my finger on what made me feel so compelled to write about my experience. Part of it was the surprise and delight in stumbling upon so many neat things in my short 48 hours in the town. Another piece was seemingly just the niche history of my own state, which I had never heard of or known before. I had no idea the state had the "sock capital of the world" in my lifetime! The direct relation of their decline to tariffs also made all the tariff mayhem we experienced this year more tangible. The last part was being happy to see a main street in a smaller town doing well, despite so many being hollowed out^[3]. Let me know if you ever end up in Fort Payne for a visit. I would love to hear your thoughts.

1. This interview with the owner shows some of the design.
2. He opened his antique store in Section and discovered it was too small to support his business, so to support it, he attends many of these events. Out of curiosity, I looked up Section's population. According to the 2010 census, the population was only 700 people, up from 769 in 2000.
3. I kept thinking about the song Our Town from the movie Cars. If you're not familiar with this song, give it a listen.