Appalachian History

In 1170 A.D., a certain Welsh prince, Madoc ab Owain Gwynedd, sailed away from his homeland, and set down in a wondrous new land at what is believed to be the location of modern day Mobile Bay, Alabama. There are a series of pre-Columbian forts built up the Alabama River, and a tradition handed down by the Cherokee Indians of the “White People” who built them.

Before the days of T.V.A. and large power companies, electricity was supplied to rural areas by such imaginative and pioneering men as Arthur Abernathy Miller. In 1925, Miller, a brilliant self-educated electrical engineer, built the first hydroelectric dam in north Alabama — the DeSoto dam in Ft Payne, AL. Miller had furnished electrical power for [...]