Gorgas is a settlement in

Walker Walker or The Walker may refer to: People *Walker (given name) *Walker (surname) *Walker (Brazilian footballer) (born 1982), Brazilian footballer Places In the United States *Walker, Arizona, in Yavapai County *Walker, Mono County, California * ...

and

Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal Plain, Gulf Coastal and Piedmont (United States), Piedm ...

counties,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, United States. It is named, via a former school in the area, after

William Crawford Gorgas William Crawford Gorgas Order of St Michael and St George, KCMG (October 3, 1854 – July 3, 1920) was a Medical Corps (United States Army), United States Army physician and 22nd Surgeons General of the United States Army, Surgeon General of the ...

Geography

Gorgas is located in northern Tuscaloosa and Walker counties. The boundaries of Gorgas were determined by the catchment area of the Gorgas High School.

History

Originally the settlement had been known simply as "Camp Ground" after the local Bethel Camp Ground Methodist Church. A high school was created in the area named after William Crawford Gorgas , and the settlement became known by the same name. The school closed in 1973. In 1940 a study of the area commissioned by the Tennessee Valley Authority called '' They Live on The Land'' was published by sociologists Paul Terry and Verner Sims of the University of Alabama, though Gorgas was renamed the fictional moniker "Upland Bend" in their study. At the time of their study Gorgas consisted of 209 families, of whom 196 households were interviewed, 30 black and 166 white. A post office operated under the name Gorgas from 1918 to 1971.

Industry

Beginning from 1917, Gorgas was home to a steam plant for producing energy. The steam plant was owned by the

Alabama Power Company Alabama Power Company, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a company in the southern United States that provides electricity service to 1.4 million customers in the southern two-thirds of Alabama. It also operates appliance stores. It is one ...

. During the 1920s, the steam plant was the subject of a dispute between Alabama Power and

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American Technological and industrial history of the United States, industrialist and business magnate. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company, he is credited as a pioneer in making automob ...

, who sought control of a stake in the plant in order to power his development at

Muscle Shoals Muscle Shoals is the largest city in Colbert County, Alabama, United States. It is located on the left bank of the Tennessee River in the northern part of the state and, as of the 2010 census, its population was 13,146. The estimated popula ...

, which Ford ultimately lost. The final Gorgas Coal-powered plant, located in Walker county, finally shut in 2019, more than a 100 years after the first coal-fired plant opened there. At the time of closing, it was Alabama's oldest coal-fired plant. Beginning in 1947, coal mines in the area, in Walker county, also owned by Alabama Power were the site of the first experiment in in-situ coal gasification in the United States, first using thermite as the ignition source, and then using electricity. The experiments were carried out in a partnership between Alabama Power and the

US Bureau of Mines The United States Bureau of Mines (USBM) was the primary Federal government of the United States, United States government agency in the 20th century that conducted scientific research and disseminated information on the extraction, processing ...

. The experiments continued for seven years until 1953, at which point the US Bureau of Mines withdrew its support for them after the US Congress withdrew funding. In total 6,000 tons of coal were combusted during up to 1953. The experiments succeeded in producing combustible synthetic gas. The experiments were reactivated after 1954, this time with hydrofracturing using a mixture of oil and sand, but finally discontinued in 1958 as uneconomical. The mines continued operation until the 1970s.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Unincorporated communities in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama Unincorporated communities in Walker County, Alabama Unincorporated communities in Alabama