Gadsden, Alabama: Legendary Waterfall, Fine Arts And Fried Catfish

Noccalula Falls Park has incredible natural beauty inside the city limits.

Legend has it that a great Cherokee chief agreed to give his beautiful daughter, Noccalula, in marriage to the wealthy chief of a neighboring tribe in exchange for a lot of money. Noccalula, however, was in love with a young brave in her own tribe. Noccalula’s father refused to listen to her pleas to be allowed to marry the one she loved. On the appointed wedding day, she dressed in the traditional wedding robes, then slipped away from the gathering crowds and took her own life by leaping off the edge of the roaring falls. The falls had previously been called Black Creek Falls, but the grief-stricken father renamed them that day in memory of his daughter.

This 90-foot (27.4 meters) waterfall is located within the Gadsden city limits. The surrounding park contains a Pioneer Village, butterfly garden, botanical garden, walking/hiking/biking trails, mini golf, lion habitat, picnic pavilions, petting zoo, train station for the train that runs through the park, wedding chapel, gift shop and a statue of Princess Noccalula. The campground has 120 sites for both primitive camping and RV sites with full hook-ups.

Noccalula Falls Park attracts visitors from all over the southeast and plays host to several yearly events, such as car shows and barbecue festivals.

Abundant lodging choices

Eighteen hotel chains and four campgrounds are scattered around the city of Gadsden and its surrounding Etowah County. Whether you want to stay one night or park your RV for a month, Gadsden has plenty of choices. If you want a little more rustic, yet comfortable, lodging option, there are two deluxe cabins for rent at Noccalula Falls Park. Each has a full kitchen, two bedrooms, front and back porches and a living room with a wood-burning fireplace, which is particularly appealing in the fall and winter. As an added bonus, you’ll be lulled to sleep by the sound of the roaring falls and waters of Black Creek right outside your back door.

Thriving downtown shops, eateries and cultural arts

Music is piped into the outside speakers as your go in and out of the shops and eateries along Broad Street. Downtown shops lure you in with intriguing names such as Alabama Gift Company, Cotton Belle, Dusty Things Antiques, Laura Lee’s on Broad and Twigs and Roses.

Tempting downtown eateries include Blackstone Pub, Cafe 5 (inside the Cultural Arts Center), Rock & Roll Sushi, The Choice, Sugar Moon and Jefferson’s.

Mary G. Hardin Center for Cultural Arts and Imagination Place draw hundreds of school-age children for field trips and private art lessons throughout the year to take advantage of the full calendar of exhibits and events. The Dance Conservatory and youth orchestra also utilize this large facility.

Restaurants along the Coosa River

Lola’s on the River and Top of the River are popular with locals and out-of-towners as well. Lola’s has many seafood choices but also offers Southern comfort food. The Sunday special, for instance, goes beyond the standard meat-and-three, which in the Deep South means that you can choose one entrée and three vegetables out of a dizzying array of options. Lola’s ups that game by offering a meat-and-four-with-dessert!

Top of the River touts the “world’s largest seafood platter,” and I have it on good authority that two or more diners can be happily satisfied with one of these platters. It helps that every meal begins with hot cornbread, slaw and pickled onions.