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==History== When the Michael Dixon family arrived about 1816, they were the first European Americans to settle here. It was traditional territory of the [[Chickasaw people]]. The settlers traded with Chief Tucumseh for the Tuscumbia Valley and built their home at the head of the big spring. Other settlers joined them and there developed a village known as the Big Spring Community. The men of the community requested that the state legislature incorporate them as a city.<ref name="Deshler High School Yearbook pg. 51">''Deshler High School Yearbook, Tiger's Roar 1996'', Volume LXVI, 175 Years Ago by John McWilliams. pg. 51</ref> The town was incorporated in 1820 as '''Ococoposa''', a Chickasaw word meaning 'dry watermelon'.<ref name="AL-1820-Incorp-Ococoposo">Acts Passed at the Second Session of the General Assembly of the State of Alabama. Ococoposa, Chickasaw which means dry watermelon Begun and held in the Town of Cahawba, on the first Monday in November, one thousand eight hundred and twenty (1820). Cahawba, Alabama: Printed by Allen & Brickell, State Printers in 1820. Page 94. [http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/history/acts_and_journals/Acts_1820/Acts_86-90.html "An Act to incorporate the town of Ococoposo in the County of Franklin...Approved, December 20, 1820.]"</ref> It is one of Alabama's oldest towns. In 1821, its name was changed to '''Big Spring'''<ref name="AL-1821-Renamed-Big-Spring">Acts Passed at the Called Session of the General Assembly of the State of Alabama Begun and Held in the Town of Cahawba, on the First Monday in June, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty One (1821). Cahawba, Alabama: Printed by Allen & Brickell, State Printers. Reprint by Statute Law Book Co., Washington, D.C. Nov. 1913. Page 40. [http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/history/acts_and_journals/1821_Special_Session/Acts_June/Acts_14-26.html "To change the name of Ococoposa, and for other purposes...Approved, June 14, 1821"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204131854/http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/history/acts_and_journals/1821_Special_Session/Acts_June/Acts_14-26.html |date=December 4, 2010 }}</ref> and on December 22, 1822, to Tuscumbia, after the Chief Rainmaker of the [[Chickasaw]].<ref name="Deshler High School Yearbook pg. 51"/><ref name="AL-1822-Renamed-Tuscumbia">Acts Passed at the Fourth Annual Session of the General Assembly of the State of Alabama, Begun and Held at the Town of Cahawba, On the third Monday of November, one thousand eight hundred and twenty two (1822). Cahawba, Alabama. Printed by William B. Allen and Co., Printers to the State. Jan. 1823. Page 131. [http://www.legislature.state.al.us/misc/history/acts_and_journals/1822/1822_Acts/Acts_101-110.html "Act - Changing the name of Big-Spring in Franklin County...Approved, Dec. 31, 1822."]</ref><ref name=alabama>{{Cite encyclopedia|last=Thornton |first=Linda |title=Tuscumbia |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Alabama |date=December 10, 2009 |url=http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2164 |access-date=January 21, 2010}}</ref> Although [[Rapids|shoals]] on the nearby [[Tennessee River]] made the river nearly impassable, a federal road completed in 1820 provided the area with good access to markets. Tuscumbia soon became the center for agriculture in northern Alabama.<ref name=alabama/> A line to the town on the [[Tuscumbia, Courtland and Decatur Railroad]] was completed in 1832, and by 1850 Tuscumbia was a major railroad hub for train traffic throughout the South.<ref name=alabama/> From 1826 to the 1860s, the [[Tuscumbia Female Academy]] operated in Tuscumbia.<ref name=":0">[[I. M. E. Blandin]], ''[[History of Higher Education of Women in the South, Prior to 1860|History of Higher Education of Women in the South Prior to 1860]]'', (New York: Washington, Neale Pub. Co., 1909), pp. 64β65.</ref> It was one of a number of private schools{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} founded by planters and others wealthy enough to pay for the education of their sons and daughters. A public city school system was not established until 1855.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.tuscumbia.k12.al.us/domain/25|title=About Us|website=Tuscambia City School District|access-date=March 4, 2024|year=2022|publisher=Finalsite}}</ref> During the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], the railroad hub made Tuscumbia a target of the [[Union Army]], which destroyed the railroad shops and other parts of the town. The Civil War resulted in the permanent closure of the Tuscumbia Female Academy.<ref name=":0" /> Tuscumbia was designated as the county seat for Colbert County in 1867.<ref name="tuscumbia">{{Cite web|title=Our History |work=City of Tuscumbia Web site |url=http://www.cityoftuscumbia.org/Our_History/index.html |access-date=January 21, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091223060325/http://www.cityoftuscumbia.org/Our_History/index.html |archive-date=December 23, 2009}}</ref> A [[tornado]], estimated at F4 intensity on the [[Fujita scale]], struck Tuscumbia on November 22, 1874, damaging or destroying about a third of the town and killing 14 people.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grazulis |first1=Thomas P. |title=Significant tornadoes, 1680-1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events |date=1993 |publisher=Environmental Films |location=St. Johnsbury, Vermont |isbn=1-879362-03-1 |page=581}}</ref> In April 1894, three African Americans accused of planning to commit arson were taken from the Tuscumbia jail by a mob of 200 men and [[Lynching in the United States|lynched]], hanged from the bridge over the Tennessee River.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Triple Lynching at Tuscumbia |date=April 23, 1894 |journal=The Atlanta Constitution}}</ref> The turn of the century period was the nadir of race relations in the South, with frequent violence by whites against African Americans to maintain white supremacy. ===21st century=== The [[COVID-19 pandemic in Alabama|2019β20 coronavirus pandemic]] resulted in the temporary closure of two tourist destinations: The Alabama Music Hall of Fame and Ivy Green at the beginning of the month of April 2020 to reduce social contact and help curb the spread of [[COVID-19]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.waff.com/2020/04/11/alabama-music-hall-fame-closed-during-pandemic/|title=Alabama Music Hall of Fame closed during pandemic|date=April 11, 2020|work=[[WAFF (TV)|WAFF]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.waff.com/2020/04/05/popular-tuscumbia-tourist-attraction-closed-during-covid-pandemic/|title=Popular Tuscumbia tourist attraction closed during COVID-19 pandemic|date=April 5, 2020|work=WAFF}}</ref>
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