Highland Lake, AL

Highland Lake is a Blount County town built around a 257-acre reservoir on the Blackburn Fork of the Little Warrior River, with Blount Mountain rising to the southeast. An earthen dam created the lake in 1954 for irrigation and recreation, and homes followed around the shoreline in the years after. Today the town's 15 miles of shoreline, coves, and mountain setting give every road a relationship to the water. The water is present in every season of the year.

Fishing, boating, swimming, camping, and wildlife shape the local calendar, while Town Hall, mayor-and-council government, and property-owner concerns handle the practical side of lake life. There are no public schools in town; students attend Blount County schools, and Oneonta is less than ten miles away for larger errands and services. Highland Lake has a distinctly residential map, with houses circling the reservoir and the town's work focused on maintaining the water, roads, shoreline, and shared routines that make the lake community function.