Sustainability
The Shoals is reducing its carbon footprint by investing in renewable energy!
With two hydroelectric dams, Wilson & Wheeler, as well as two utility-scale solar farms, the Shoals is primed to become the biggest renewable energy producing community in the State of Alabama! We pride ourselves on reducing our impact on the environment—so much so that the City of Florence has achieved the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Gold Sustainable Community designation and is currently progressing to Platinum status!
Convenient Location
The area known as “The Shoals” is located along the Tennessee River in Northwest Alabama. “The Shoals” area includes Lauderdale and Colbert Counties, both of which make up the U.S. Census designated Florence-Muscle Shoals MSA. The major urban center of the Florence-Muscle Shoals MSA, commonly referred to as the quad cities, includes the cities of Muscle Shoals, Sheffield, Tuscumbia, and Florence.
The major metropolitan areas of Huntsville, Birmingham, Nashville, Memphis, and Atlanta are all within easy driving distance of the Shoals. The Northwest Alabama Regional Airport offers flights to and from Nashville and Atlanta connecting to everywhere.
Shoals Living
The Shoals area boasts affordable housing, low property taxes, and an overall low cost of living that makes it the perfect location for a startup or an expanding business.
- Home Value – Alabama and The Shoals boast some of the best value for homes in the U.S. The Shoals median sale price for homes for 2020 was $160,688 while the statewide median sales price was $188,134 and the U.S. median sales price was $300,200 (acre.culverhouse.ua.edu/). Home sales in the Shoals increased by nearly 15% from Q1 2017 to Q1 2018.
- Cost of Living – The Shoals area continues to have one of the lowest costs of living among all of MSAs in the U.S. The Shoals currently has a C2ER cost of living index of 88.1 and is one of the lowest among its size in the State of Alabama.
- Local property taxes are low, as well as the state personal income tax.
Outdoors
The natural beauty of The Shoals and the Tennessee Valley offer an abundance of outdoor activities. Hiking Shoal Creek Preserve, fishing and water sports on Wheeler, Wilson, and Pickwick lakes, golfing the 36 hole Robert Trent Jones Shoals, or kayaking Cypress or Shoals creeks are just a few of the adventures awaiting the outdoor enthusiast.
Downtown Life
The Shoals offers revitalized downtown areas with great shopping, fabulous restaurants, music and nightlife. Florence First Fridays attracts thousands to peruse local arts and crafts and experience live music shows and entertainment.
Held annually during the fourth weekend in October at Wilson Park in downtown Florence. Are you in Florence, Alabama in the 21st century, or Florence, Italy in the Middle Ages? This educational event re-creates the atmosphere of an authentic medieval renaissance faire. Participants dress in authentic, period costumes. Arts & crafts, wandering minstrels, magicians, and chamber singers are also part of the festivities, as you step back in time.
Arts Alive is a project of the Kennedy-Douglass Center for the Arts Volunteers and was started in 1986. Arts Alive attracts hundreds of art and craft lovers from a three-state region and beyond. Wilson Park in downtown Florence is packed with people for two days as they stroll, meet the artists, and purchase. Arts Alive is a family event, and families flock to the Park to participate!
Step back into the past at the annual Frontier Day Celebration at historic Pope’s Tavern Museum in Florence, held on the first full weekend of June. This outdoor event celebrates the frontier heritage of Florence with crafts, music, and costumes typical of the period. Admission is free.
“It’s a fun event for the whole family. It provides education as well as entertainment.” The Celebration includes dulcimer music and educational demonstrations of arts and crafts by artisans in costume. Many of the crafts are available for sale. Come enjoy music by the Shoals Dulcimer and Folk Music Association as you see basket weaving, chair caning, quilting, wool spinning, pottery making, wood carving, broom making, and much more.
Walk through Pope’s Tavern Museum free during the hours of the Celebration to complete your voyage back in time. Pope’s Tavern Museum is located at the corner of Hermitage Drive and Seminary Street. For more information, call the museum, (256) 760-6439. Museum programs are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.
The festival is 7 full days each year in June filled with historical tours, entertainment, arts and crafts. Keller Kids (a free all-day program for 4th, 5th and 6th graders teaching them about living with and overcoming disabilities), Kids on Commons (a free event featuring activities such as children’s arts and crafts booths, face painting, balloons, inflatables, games, etc.), athletic events, car shows and much, much more.
The Shoals Storytelling Festival, listed as a Top Twenty Events in the Southeast, began in 2011 as the Front Porch Storytelling Festival, was originally hosted on the campus of the University of North Alabama (UNA) in Florence, a city on the banks of the Tennessee River in northwestern Alabama. In 2017, the Festival moved to the historic Shoals Theatre in downtown Florence and was renamed The Shoals Storytelling Festival.
Held annually on July 4th at McFarland Park in Florence. Thousands of people gather each year to enjoy live music from some of the biggest names in the music business, family fun, and various other activities. The celebration concludes with an impressive firework show illuminating the beautiful Tennessee River. The fireworks show is one of the largest in the Tennessee Valley.
The Trail of Tears Remembrance Motorcycle Ride is held annually on the third Saturday of September. The ride begins in Chattanooga, Tennessee and ends in Florence, Alabama.
The event includes the ”Largest Organized Motorcycle Ride in the South”, with as many as 10,000 participants in this historic event to honor the many Native Americans who perished and suffered as a result of the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
Held the last full week of July throughout the Shoals. It is the largest of all of the area festivals. The annual event, named in honor of W.C. Handy, Alabama’s “Father of the Blues”, features blues, jazz, and gospel music, educational events, coordinated art shows, athletic events, street parties, great food, and much more.
Some of the favorite events of the Festival include Handy Nights at local restaurants and outdoor concerts at parks throughout the Shoals. Some events require admission, but most are free. The event attracts an estimated 150,000 annually.
Cultural Attractions
The Shoals has a rich heritage in music and culture. W.C. Handy, the Father of the Blues, was born in Florence. His birth home is now a museum, and a music festival is held every summer in his honor. FAME Studios and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio were the recording spaces for many hit songs from artists like the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge, and Carrie Underwood. Ivy Green, the birthplace of Helen Keller, the early life and history of the historic figure.
Held the last full week of July throughout the Shoals. It is the largest of all of the area festivals. The annual event, named in honor of W.C. Handy, Alabama’s “Father of the Blues”, features blues, jazz, and gospel music, educational events, coordinated art shows, athletic events, street parties, great food, and much more.
Some of the favorite events of the Festival include Handy Nights at local restaurants and outdoor concerts at parks throughout the Shoals. Some events require admission, but most are free. The event attracts an estimated 150,000 annually.
Architecture critic Peter Blake wrote in 1960 that “during the 1930s, Wright built four structures of a beauty unexcelled in America before or since.” Three of those are Fallingwater, the Johnson Wax Administrative Building, and Taliesin West. The fourth was the Usonian prototype of which the Rosenbaum House is one of the purest examples.
Open to the public Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Sunday 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The festival is 7 full days each year in June filled with historical tours, entertainment, arts and crafts. Keller Kids (a free all-day program for 4th, 5th and 6th graders teaching them about living with and overcoming disabilities), Kids on Commons (a free event featuring activities such as children’s arts and crafts booths, face painting, balloons, inflatables, games, etc.), athletic events, car shows and much, much more.
Food & Dining
Culinary connoisseurs can explore the many unique and multicultural restaurants. From the famous Trowbridge’s sandwiches, the folksy Rivertown Coffee, the fine dining at Odette, to many ethnic dining spots, a businessperson in The Shoals can enjoy quality food perfect for chatting about business or refueling after a hard day’s work.
