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Fort Payne, Alabama. February 2008. Photo by me.
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Recently, I was listening to All Things Considered on NPR which aired
a story on the Sock Capital of the World, Fort Payne Alabama. The story told of
how duty-free imports of socks had put the sock capital into decline as American
factories were no longer able to compete with cheaper imported socks. Fort Payne
struggled with empty mills and a faced a not so promising future. Some new
industry has returned to the city of over 12,000 people but many of the 4,000
mill workers that lost jobs were forced to take lower paying jobs in the service
sector.
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| February 2008. Photo by me. |
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| February 2008. Photo by me. |
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| February 2008. Photo by me. |
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| February 2008. Photo by me. |
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| February 2008. Photo by me. |
Downtown Fort Payne is a typical quaint southern small/big town with red brick
buildings that indicate a more prosperous time in the not-so-distant past. Today those buildings house
insurance offices, antique shops and various other small businesses.
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Fort Payne nearing I-59. February 2008. Photo by me.
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I passed
through the town and had an early Sunday dinner. The busiest part of Fort
Payne was away from the town center and out by Interstate 59 which passes by on
its way to Chattanooga or Birmingham. In that area you find the Walmart,
hospital and other new chain developments you would find in
most any other American town.
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| February 2008. Photo by me. |
Fort Payne is also the hometown of the country/southern rock band Alabama that was most popular in the 1980s.
I wonder how many other Fort Payne's are scattered across this country. Towns
that had one main manufacturing industry that was destroyed through the global
marketplace.
Related: NPR story on Fort Payne
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