Phil Campbell, AL

Phil Campbell is a town in southeastern Franklin County, Alabama, on State Route 13 between Russellville and Haleyville. The 2020 census counted 992 residents. The town lies about six miles east of Dismals Canyon, a privately owned natural conservatory designated a National Natural Landmark. Northwest Shoals Community College has a campus here, giving the town an educational role in addition to its highway and farming connections. Phil Campbell High School also serves as a visible part of the town’s local map.

The town began in the 1880s when Phillip Campbell, an English railroad work crew leader and engineer, established a work camp nearby. He built the depot and siding after a local businessman promised to name the town for him, producing Alabama’s unusual first-and-last-name place. The first school met in a two-story frame building behind the Methodist church in 1910. Today Phil Campbell’s streets still follow the railroad beginning, State Route 13, and the route toward Dismals Canyon. It is a small Franklin County town with a full personal name and a landscape that moves from college classrooms to canyon country.