Hueytown, AL

Hueytown is a western Jefferson County city in the Birmingham metro, shaped by the heavy-industry development that defined much of this part of Alabama in the 20th century. It has a few unusually specific claims to fame: the unexplained Hueytown Hum in the early 1990s, local racing families tied to NASCAR, and a long school history. It is a practical Birmingham-area city with a blue-collar past and more odd local lore than its size suggests.