Editing Redstone Arsenal (section)

===Pre-1941===
The land occupied by the Redstone Arsenal was previously inhabited by Native Americans. A total of 651 prehistoric archaeological sites have been archived at Redstone Arsenal to date.<ref>Data on File at the Redstone Arsenal Environmental Management Division</ref>{{as of?|date=November 2024}}{{better source needed|date=March 2024}} At least 22 have components dating to the [[Paleo-Indians|Paleo-Indian period]] (9200 to 8000 BC). The Paleo-Indian handhewn projectile point called the Redstone Point was named after the Arsenal where it was first identified.<ref>[http://www.garrison.redstone.army.mil/sites/directorates/dpw/emd/cnr/CulturalRes/content/ARCHAEOLOGICAL%20PROGRAM.pdf RSA Archeological Program] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080910072211/http://www.garrison.redstone.army.mil/sites/directorates/dpw/emd/cnr/CulturalRes/content/ARCHAEOLOGICAL%20PROGRAM.pdf |date=September 10, 2008}}. redstone.army.mil</ref>

Euro-Americans settlers began to establish homesteads on the land that is now Redstone Arsenal by the first decade of the 19th century. Prior to the [[Civil War (United States)|Civil War]], the landscape was dominated by several large plantations, the remains of which survive as archaeological sites. The land played a peripheral role during the Civil War with activity limited to the posting of pickets along the Tennessee River bank. Following the war, many of the large plantations were increasingly divided into smaller parcels owned by small farmers, who included former slaves and their descendants. By the start of the 20th century, many of the farms were owned by absentee owners, with the land being worked by tenants and sharecroppers. The remains of hundreds of tenant and sharecropper houses still dot the landscape around the installation.<ref>Curry, Beverly S. ''The People Who Lived on the Land that Is Now Redstone Arsenal''. Cultural Resources Management Program, U.S. Army Missile Command, 2006.</ref>

At the beginning of the 20th century, the approximately {{convert|57|sqmi|km2|adj=on}} area of rolling terrain, which contained some of the richest agricultural land in Madison County, included such small farming communities as Spring Hill, Pond Beat, Mullins Flat, and Union Hill. Although there was no electricity, indoor plumbing, or telephones, few roads, and fewer cars or tractors, the people who lived in the area prospered enough to support their own stores, mills, shops, gins, churches, and schools.  A total of 46 historic cemeteries including slave cemeteries, plantation family cemeteries, and late 19th to early 20th century community cemeteries are maintained on the installation as [[Redstone Arsenal cemeteries]].