By Danny Crownover
While driving through the site of Camp Sibert in the flatwoods region recently, the Vagabond recalled several discussions about Gadsden’s future.
One was back during the bicentennial years when predictions said that by the year 2000, Gadsden and Birmingham city limits would have joined. Another discussion happened in back end of Professor J.W. Dubose’s bookstore back in the 1890s.
Several of the very old ones, now long gone, some of whom had been instrumental in bringing the old town up to a population of a little over 4,000, predicted there would be a city here someday. At that time, Gadsden was barely a mere small village.
A young lawyer of that time, who was a fine man and a smart one with a tendency to occasionally express violent opinions, suddenly exclaimed that such predictions were pure nonsense.
He said, since there was not room enough within the corporate limits for more than 6,000 people that there would never be more than that number here.
The oldsters reminded him that the Coosa River could be bridged, that more territory could be taken in and that, in fact, there was nothing to hinder Gadsden from spreading out over all the adjacent valleys and mountains.
Wise old fellows they were.
Gadsden today, has spread across the river and East Gadsden and is a community of many thousands population. The valleys and the mountains today are covered with homes and businesses.
Contact The Vagabond at dkcrown@bellsouth.net.
