Cedar Bluff, AL

Cedar Bluff sits on the north shore of Weiss Lake in Cherokee County, and the water is the town's main fact of life. The 2020 census counted 1,845 residents. Weiss Lake covers about 30,200 acres and has nearly 450 miles of shoreline, so Cedar Bluff's local reputation as a crappie-fishing destination is not a throwaway slogan; boats, ramps, coves, and lake weather shape the way the town is experienced. The reservoir took its modern form after Weiss Dam created the lake in 1961, covering parts of the older river landscape.

ATTRThomson200 / CC0

The town itself reaches back much farther. A post office has operated here since 1837, Cedar Bluff served as Cherokee County seat from about 1836 to 1844, and the name points to cedar groves above the bluffs along the river. Cornwall Furnace adds an industrial and Civil War-era layer nearby, while Cedar Bluff School remains part of Cherokee County's public-school system. Put it all together and Cedar Bluff feels like a lake town with a deep local memory: nineteenth-century county business, a twentieth-century reservoir, and a present-day community that measures its seasons by fishing, boating, school, and the shoreline.