Blount Springs, Alabama

Blount Springs is an unincorporated community in Blount County, Alabama.

Contents

History

Blount Springs's mineral springs and rural setting made it a summer resort for thousands of wealthy people from Alabama and elsewhere in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The sulfur springs were renowned for their curative properties. After a fire burned much of the town in 1915, it remained sparsely populated and largely undeveloped for several decades.

In the late 1980s, developers began work on the Village at Blount Springs, the first stage of a 6,000-acre (24 km2) planned community on the former site of the Blount Springs resort.

Numerous springs emerge at the site of the former resort, each containing a different mineral (white sulfur, red sulfur, and lithium, to name a few). When the resort was still in operation, water from the springs was sold in blue glass bottles. Shards of these bottles fill the soil near the foundations of the resort, and are said to bring good luck.

Geography

Blount Springs is located at 33°55'52" North and 86°47'38" West[1]. The community lies east of Interstate 65, about 28 miles (45 km) north of Birmingham.

Attractions

The Blount Springs Arts and History Foundation hosts the annual Blue Hole Art Fest. The community's Top Hat Barbecue also is renowned across the Southeast for its pulled pork sandwiches and ketchup-based barbecue sauce.

References

  1. ^ "US Board on Geographic Names". United States Geological Survey. 2007-10-25. http://geonames.usgs.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31.