Seniors Find ‘A City of Champions’

Gadsden, in the State of Alabama, is located on the Coosa River about 56 miles northeast of Birmingham, Alabama and 90 miles southwest of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Senior visitors will find just over 27,000 residents in this community that is ideally located at the foot of Lookout Mountain.

From majestic Noccalula Falls Park to the Coosa River and Neely Henry Lake, the beauty inspires senior visitors. The locals mean it when they say Gadsden is the “City of Champions”.

Gadsden was at one time Alabama’s second most important center of commerce and industry, trailing only the seaport of Mobile. The two cities were important shipping centers: Gadsden for riverboats and Mobile for international trade.

Seniors Visit All-American City

Through the 1980s, Gadsden was a center of heavy industry, including the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and the Republic Steel Corporation.  More than a decade after the sharp decline in industry, in 1991, Gadsden was awarded the honor of All-American City by the National Civic League.

An American hero was born nearby. Seniors can visit Jesse Owens Memorial Park that honors Owens the Olympic great who redefined the image of an entire people by winning four gold medals in the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games.

Gadsden was originally a village called “Double Springs”, founded in 1825 by John Riley. The name Gadsden was adopted in honor of Colonel James Gadsden of South Carolina, later to become famous for negotiating the Gadsden Purchase from Mexico.

Gadsden is a natural for what a vacation is supposed to be. From majestic Noccalula Falls Park to the Coosa River and Neely Henry Lake, the beauty inspires senior tourists from across the nation.

 Water Falls, Covered Bridge and Tigers, Lions and Black Leopards!

The Gilliland-Reese Covered Bridge is an historical construction built in 1899 and moved to Noccalula Falls Park in 1968. The main feature of the park is a notable 90 foot waterfall with a gorge trail winding through its basin and past caves, an aboriginal fort, an abandoned dam, pioneer homestead, and Civil War carvings.

The Falls, which drops into the Black Creek ravine, is marked with a bronze statue of Cherokee maiden Noccalula who, according to local legends, plunged to her death after being ordered by her father to marry a man she didn’t love.

If you enjoy wildlife,’Tigers for Tomorrow’ is near Gadsden and is a safe haven for more than 160 predators including 30 tigers. Spread on 140 acres, this park and rescue preserve is a new home for tigers, lions and black leopards, to name just a few species.

Gadsden is one beautiful city in the foothills of the Appalachians. Sound like Eden.  jeb