State ALABAMA

TUSCALOOSA
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Tuscaloosa is a city in west central Alabama in the southern United States. Located on the Black Warrior River, 
it is the seat of Tuscaloosa County and the fifth-largest city in Alabama with a population of 83,052 
(2006 U.S. Census Bureau Estimate).

Tuscaloosa is named after the Choctaw chieftain Tuskalusa (which means Black Warrior in that language), 
who battled and was defeated by Hernando de Soto in 1540 in the Battle of Mauvila.

Best known as the home of The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa is also the center of industry, 
commerce, healthcare, and education for the region commonly known as West Alabama.

Tuscaloosa attracted international attention when Mercedes-Benz announced it would build its first automotive 
assembly plant in North America in Tuscaloosa County. 

Nevertheless, the University remains the dominant economic and cultural engine in the city.

read full wikipedia reference about Tuscaloosa, Alabama

The City of Tuscaloosa is located in West Alabama on the Black Warrior River, 57 miles southwest of 
Birmingham. Tuscaloosa is the county seat of 1,340 square mile Tuscaloosa County, which also includes 
the municipalities of Northport and Brookwood. The City's 77,906 inhabitants (2000) represent 47% of 
Tuscaloosa County's 164,875 population. The home of the University of Alabama, Stillman College, 
Shelton State Community College, and several large hospitals. 

Tuscaloosa looms large in the educational and institutional infrastructure of Alabama. Its diversified industrial 
base is anchored by the 1,900 employee Mercedes-Benz M-Class SUV assembly plant which commenced 
production in 1997.  The plant had already undergone two 40 million expansion when, in August 2000, 
Mercedes-Benz announced a $600 million project to double the plant's size and production capacity by the 
year 2004, employing an additional 2,000 workers.  When the expansion is completed, the plant will have a 
capacity of approximately 160,000 units per year.

HISTORY OF TUSCALOOSA

The site of the future City of Tuscaloosa on the "Fall Line" of the Black Warrior River had long been well 
known to the various Indian tribes whose shifting fortunes brought them to West Alabama. The river shoals 
at Tuscaloosa represented the southernmost site on the river which could be forded under most conditions. 

Inevitably, a network of Indian trails converged upon the place, the same network which, in the first years of the 
19th Century began to lead a few intrepid white frontiersmen to the area. The pace of white settlement increased 
greatly after the War of 1812, and a small assortment of log cabins soon arose near the large Creek Indian village 
at the Fall Line of the river. In honor of the legendary "Black Warrior", a great chief who had had a fateful encounter 
with explorer Hernando DeSoto centuries before somewhere in Southwest Alabama, the settlers named the place 
Tuscaloosa (from the Choctaw words "tushka" meaning warrior and "lusa" meaning black). 

In 1817, Alabama became a territory, and on December 13, 1819, the territorial legislature incorporated the town 
of Tuscaloosa, exactly one day before Congress admitted Alabama to the Union as a state. Thus, the City of 
Tuscaloosa is one day older than the State of Alabama.

From 1826 to 1846 Tuscaloosa was the state capital of Alabama. During this period, in 1831, the 
University of Alabama was established. These developments, together with the region's growing economy, 
raised the number of the town's inhabitants to 4,250 by 1845, but after the departure of the capital to Montgomery, 
population fell to 1,950 in 1850. Establishment of the Bryce State Hospital for the Insane in Tuscaloosa in the 1850's 
helped restore the City's fortunes. During the Civil War, Tuscaloosa County furnished about 3,500 men to the 
Confederate armies. During the last weeks of the War, a Federal raiding party burned the campus of the University. 

Tuscaloosa shared fully in the South's economic sufferings which followed the defeat.
The construction of a system of locks and dams on the Black Warrior River by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 
in the 1890's opened up an inexpensive link to the Gulf seaport of Mobile, stimulating especially the mining and 
metallurgical industries of the region. By the advent of the 20th Century, the growth of the University of Alabama 
and a strong national economy fueled a steady growth in Tuscaloosa which continued unabated for 100 years. 

The presence in Tuscaloosa of manufacturing plants of such large multi-national firms as Michelin Tires, 
JVC America, and Chrysler-Mercedes have established the City as an economic pillar of the global economy.




OTHER POPULAR DESTINATIONS IN ALABAMA

Athens
Auburn
Bessemer
Birmingham
Cullman
Decatur
Dothan
Eufala
Florence
Foley
Gadsden
Greenville
Gulf Shores
Huntsville
Madison
Mobile
Montgomery
Opelika
Orange Beach
Oxford
Pelham
Prattville
Scottsboro
Selma
Thomasville
Troy
Tuscaloosa