Town of Oakville

During historic times, the area was the site of the early town, Oakville, located on the southeastern frontier of Lawrence County, Alabama. The Town of Oakville was the first town established in Lawrence County around 1820 and it appeared near its peak during the middle 1800’s just prior to the Civil War.

In 1817, the first government surveys of the Oakville area identified a stream of fresh water flowing from a huge spring. The stream ran about ½ mile before running into a limestone crevasse and going underground. Eventually, hogs stopped up the sink which caused the area to flood. In addition to flooding, a disease called the “bloody flux” lead to the death of many Oakville residents. The Town of Oakville was abandoned around 1850.

The remnants of Indian heritage, traditions, customs, and history and evidence of the earliest frontier settlement of the area at Oakville Indian Mounds Park and Museum give glimpses of the rich prehistoric and historic past. It has long been a site in Lawrence County deserving of protection and utilization as an educational and historical area. It is a tourist and visitor attraction as well as an educational facility for all North Alabama school children, only rivaled in Alabama by the Mound State Monument in Moundville, Alabama.