Steele, AL

Steele is a town in northeastern St. Clair County, just off Interstate 59 in the foothills of Alabama's Appalachian country. It was incorporated in 1952 and named for Joshua Toliver Steele, an early landowner whose name stayed with the community. The town sits within reach of Birmingham and Gadsden, but its strongest local landmarks are closer at hand: the Steele Hotel from 1870, the Curtis G. Beason Home from 1840, and several historic churches that mark the older settlement pattern.

ATTRJeramey Jannene / CC BY 2.0

Chandler Mountain gives Steele its best-known regional destination. Horse Pens 40, a privately operated nature park on the mountain, is known for unusual rock formations called the Rock Zoo and for its history as a hiding place during the Civil War. The Alabama International Dragway adds a very different kind of weekend draw, while Steele's town park provides a ball field for local play. Interstate traffic, historic houses, mountain rocks, motorsports, and a small-town park all fit into Steele's map. It is a place where the road through St. Clair County can lead to both a nineteenth-century hotel and a day on the mountain.