Tuscumbia is a city in and the county seat of Colbert County, Alabama, United States. The population was 9,054 at the 2020 census, and was estimated to be 9,169 in 2023. The town was incorporated in 1820 as Ococoposa, a Chickasaw word meaning 'dry watermelon'. It is one of Alabama's oldest towns. In 1821, its name was changed to Big Spring and on December 22, 1822, to Tuscumbia, after the Chief Rainmaker of the Chickasaw.
Although 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. It was one of a number of private schools 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.
During the 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.
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.
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 lynched, hanged from the bridge over the Tennessee River. 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.
20th and 21st centuries
In March 1973 the Tennessee Valley Museum of Art (then known as the Tennessee Valley Art Center) opened to the public.
The 2019–20 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.
Geography
Tuscumbia is located northeast of the center of Colbert County. It is bordered to the north by the city of Sheffield and to the northeast by the city of Muscle Shoals. The Tennessee River is to the northwest.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and (0.50%) is water.
| date=March 14, 2023