Fort Deposit, AL

Fort Deposit is Lowndes County's largest town, a settlement on the Old Federal Road and State Road 185 about two miles west of Interstate 65. Its name comes from a supply fort built here in 1813 under Gen. Ferdinand Claiborne during the Creek War. The fort stood on a bluff and held soldiers, wagons, and supplies; wells and munitions bunkers remain among the few traces. A post office arrived in 1855, the Alabama-Florida Railroad reached town in 1861, and Fort Deposit incorporated in 1891.

ATTRRivers Langley; SaveRivers / CC BY-SA 3.0

The town's calendar blends that early military history with local gathering traditions. The Calico Fort Arts and Crafts Fair has run since 1972 with music, crafts, food, and children's activities. Priester's Pecans began in a Fort Deposit gas station in 1935 and grew into a regional roadside name. Lowndes County schools, the town library, senior center, park and recreation department, and Fort Deposit-Lowndes County Airport fill in the present-day map. Fort Deposit is an Alabama town where an old fort, a railroad line, a pecan business, and an annual fair still meet.