1934 Map of Searles

About this map

The Black Warrior River dominates this landscape, serving as a vital industrial artery as it snakes between the Tuscaloosa and Jefferson county lines. In the late 1920s, a series of engineering works including Lock No 16, Lock No 15, and Lock No 14 managed the river's descent, supporting the heavy transport needs of the coal and timber country. The southeastern corner shows a dense concentration of company towns and rail infrastructure, where the Mobile and Ohio Railroad and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad converge near Brookwood and Searles. Away from the river and rail lines, the topography rises into family-named ridges like Graveyard Ridge and peaks such as Iron Ore Mountain. This survey captures a moment of transition where established rural communities centered on Pattons Mill and Spencer Hill Sch existed alongside the rising industrial scale of the regional mining and transit networks.