Muscle Shoals

City in Colbert County, northwestern Alabama, on the Tennessee River, 5 mi/8 km south of Florence; population (1990) 9,600. The city is named after the unnavigable rapids that once extended for 60 km/37 mi along the Tennessee River (which were also known as Mussel Shoals); these have been submerged since the building of the Wilson Dam.

The Wilson Dam was built near Muscle Shoals at the end of World War I to provide power for the manufacture of nitrates for munitions. When peace ensued, the project was geared to producing fertilizer and chemicals as well as generating hydroelectric energy. The Tennessee Valley Authority took it over in 1933, adding the Wheeler and Pickwick dams to harness the full power of the rapids. In the 1960s, the city of Muscle Shoals gained a different reputation, as a recording centre for soul and other popular artists. Shoals Community College (founded 1966) is sited here.