Kowaliga

Overview

The Bensons' valley

Kowaliga was a farming and school community on Kowaliga Creek, a tributary of the Tallapoosa River, in the hills between Alexander City and Montgomery. It was built by John Jackson Benson, born into slavery in 1850 near the creek. After the war he mined coal for 60 cents a ton until he had saved $100. By 1890 he owned 160 acres and by 1898 more than 3,000, with a sawmill, gristmill, brickyard and cotton gin. About 40 families farmed his land.

His son Will added the rest. He founded a school on land his father gave, which became the Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute. Booker T. Washington served for a time as a trustee, and gifts from Northern donors, Andrew Carnegie among them, paid to rebuild it after a fire in 1909. In 1900 Will started the Dixie Industrial Company, and in 1914 its Dixie Line railroad began hauling lumber to Alexander City. It is often called the first Black-owned railroad in the country.

World War I closed the company's export market, and Will Benson lost control of the school and the company before he died in 1915. John Benson died in late 1925. A few months later Alabama Power finished Martin Dam, and the rising lake covered the valley. The school closed, and the community scattered. Today the name Kowaliga is used for many places around the lake. One is the marina at the end of the route below, on a point of land where the 1906 USGS map printed the name.

Timeline

From a mule and $100 to a railroad

1. Sept 1850John Jackson Benson is born into slavery near Kowaliga Creek. He is freed after the Civil War.
2. 1880After years in the Shelby County coal mines at 60 cents a ton, Benson has saved $100.
3. 1890He owns 160 acres of the old James Benson plantation, bought on credit.
4. 1898He owns more than 3,000 acres, with a brickyard, sawmill, gristmill and cotton gin, and about 40 families farming his land.
5. About 1895–1899His son, Will Benson, opens a school on 10 acres his father gives. The cornerstone is laid in August 1896, and it becomes the Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute.
6. 1900Will Benson founds the Dixie Industrial Company. It grows to about 10,000 acres, with a sawmill, a turpentine still and a cotton gin.
7. Feb 1909A fire that starts in the laundry destroys the school buildings. Northern supporters give nearly $25,000 (Wikipedia credits Andrew Carnegie with $20,000), and a new campus goes up on a hilltop about a mile north from August 1910.
8. 1913More than 300 students are enrolled.
9. 1914The Dixie Line opens, about 15 or 16 miles of track to Alexander City. It is described as the first Black-owned railroad in the US.
10. 1915World War I, which began in 1914, has closed the company's European market. Will Benson is pushed out in June and dies in October.
11. 1921–1922The rails are pulled up under an agreement with Alabama Power.
12. Nov 1925John Benson dies. Sources give November 3 and November 9.
13. 1926Alabama Power finishes Martin Dam at Cherokee Bluffs, and Lake Martin floods the valley. The institute closes about this time; sources give 1925 and 1926.
14. 1927A Rosenwald school is finished near the old Dixie Industrial Company site.
15. 1952–1953Hank Williams vacations on Lake Martin in August 1952 and records "Kaw-Liga," named for the place, that September. It comes out in January 1953, and Alexander City proclaims a "Kowaliga Day."
16. 2021Russell Lands owns the old school land. A rebuilt bell tower, a concrete foundation and some quartz rock mark it.

What's left

A bell tower in the pines

Little is left above the water. Wikipedia, citing sources from 2021, says the land is owned by Russell Lands, the Lake Martin developer, and that the school site holds only some quartz rock and a concrete foundation near a rebuilt bell tower. Will Benson was buried on the campus near that tower. In 2021 the Rosenwald school that replaced the institute in 1927 was standing abandoned across from Russell Crossroads, in Tallapoosa County. After the school closed, its largest building became Hotel Camp Dixie, which later burned. Russell Lands' history says that building was Patrons' Hall; Alabama Heritage says Howland Hall. A school publication of about 1913 shows the bell tower standing in open ground between the two halls.

The 1906 USGS sheet, made 20 years before the dam, shows Kowaliga as a cluster of roads and buildings in the creek valley, south of the Tallapoosa County line. On the 1971 sheet the same spot is a point of land in the lake where AL 63 starts across the water, with the Church in the Pines beside the road. The marina at the end of today's route sits on that point, and our map point falls on the town's name on both sheets.

Russell Lands' 2019 trail map of its Russell Forest marks a "Bell Tower" beside a trail off Nichols Road, about 1.2 miles east-northeast of the marina point, across the AL 63 bridge. That fits the school's tower, but the map doesn't name the school. The same map marks a Benson Sawmill Site and Ole Kowaliga Kilns on the Ole Kowaliga Trail by Russell Crossroads, about 2.5 miles to the northeast. Russell Lands says users of its trail system must join the Russell Forest Trail Association, and the association's 2019 rules have each group call Russell Lands Security on arrival at a trailhead.

• School bell tower, rebuilt (2021 report)
• Concrete foundation and quartz rock at the school site (2021)
• Will Benson's grave near the bell tower
• Abandoned Rosenwald school (1927), across from Russell Crossroads (2021)

The name

Hank Williams and Kaw-Liga

Hank Williams vacationed on Lake Martin in August 1952 and recorded "Kaw-Liga" that September. He first spelled it "Kowaliga"; Fred Rose, his co-writer, changed it. The song came out in January 1953, and Alexander City proclaimed a Kowaliga Day the same year.

Historic maps

Kowaliga on USGS maps, 1906–1981

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19061:125,00019711:24,00019811:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Alexander City is the closest city, about half an hour away on AL 22 and AL 63. From Montgomery the route goes up the Wetumpka Highway (US 231) and across on AL 170 to AL 63. Both end on Kowaliga Marina Road at today's Kowaliga, a marina on the point where the 1906 map printed the town's name. The old community around it is under the lake.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Kowaliga in photos

Lake Martin and the Kowaliga Bridge from the air, in a photo dated 2005A frame school building, from an institute publication of about 1913–1916The campus looking west, with the bell tower, about 1913John Jackson Benson, in a book of 1911Howland Hall and Patrons' Hall, looking east from the crest, about 1913Will Benson, in a book of 1911Scenes of the community, 1905Some of the school's teachers, about 1913

Visitor reports

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Nearby

Other sites near Kowaliga

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Alabama index.

• Gantts Quarry33.8 mi NW · Talladega
• Louina35.9 mi NE · Randolph
• Washington36.6 mi SW · Autauga
• Fitzpatrick37.1 mi S · Bullock
• Odena37.2 mi NW · Talladega
• Chandler Springs40.8 mi N · Talladega
• Suspension43.6 mi SE · Bullock
• Nottingham45.4 mi N · Talladega

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Kowaliga, Alabama", retrieved October 2026: the Bensons, land and businesses, the school's founding and the 1909 fire, Carnegie's gift, the Dixie Line, Martin Dam, Russell Lands' ownership and what remains, citing Siri Hedreen, "Two amateur historians are putting the 'drowned town' of Benson back on the map," Alexander City Outlook, April 28, 2021 (the article itself did not open for us), the Rosenwald school (citing her "Timeline: The rise and fall of Benson" of the same date), Hank Williams and Kowaliga Day, coordinates.
2. Wikipedia, "Kowaliga School": the school's names, the 1896 cornerstone, incorporation, the February 1909 fire, the Dixie Industrial Company.
3. Russell Lands History, "John Benson" (Ben Russell, 2021): Benson's savings and land, the 1909 laundry fire and the new campus of 1910, enrollment, the railroad and its removal, the 1926 dam, the 1927 Rosenwald school, Patrons' Hall as Camp Dixie, Will Benson's grave.
4. Alabama Heritage, "William Benson and the Kowaliga School" (Michael Sznajderman and Leah Rawls Atkins, issue 76, spring 2005; reposted February 17, 2025): the 1909 fire and the hilltop campus a mile north, gifts of nearly $25,000, the Dixie Line, Howland Hall as Camp Dixie, the 1926 closing, Will Benson's tomb on Russell Lands property. Its description of the site is from 2005.
5. Russell Lands, Russell Forest trails map (PDF dated October 2019): the "Bell Tower", Benson Sawmill Site and Ole Kowaliga Kilns, placed from the map's trailhead coordinates.
6. Russell Lands, "Russell Forest", read October 22, 2026: "Users of the trail system must join the association to have access to the trail system." Russell Crossroads' "Russell Forest Trails" page says the same.
7. Russell Forest Trail Association, "Membership & Policies" (PDF dated January 2019, linked from the Russell Crossroads page): walkers and hikers register and sign a release, one member of each group calls Russell Lands Security on arrival at the trailhead, and the trails are open from dawn to dusk.
8. Wikipedia, "Kaw-Liga": recorded September 23, 1952, released January 1953.
9. NewsOne, "Black Town Under Lake Martin" (Bilal G. Morris, February 14, 2022): Benson's birth and death dates, trustees, the 1913 school, the dam's construction years.
10. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• Lake Martin and the Kowaliga Bridge from the air, in a photo dated 2005: Miller Dark, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• A frame school building, from an institute publication of about 1913–1916: Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• The campus looking west, with the bell tower, about 1913: Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• John Jackson Benson, in a book of 1911: Green Polonius Hamilton, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Howland Hall and Patrons' Hall, looking east from the crest, about 1913: Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Will Benson, in a book of 1911: Green Polonius Hamilton, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Scenes of the community, 1905: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division, The New York Public Library. "Kowaliga: scenes of the community life." The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1905., Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Some of the school's teachers, about 1913: Kowaliga Academic and Industrial Institute, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
• Kowaliga on the 1906 USGS Dadeville sheet, south of the Tallapoosa County line, with Kowaliga Creek and Irma to the southeast: U.S. Geological Survey, USGS catalog, Public domain
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Dadeville 1906, 1:125,000; Red Hill 1971, 1:24,000; Opelika 1981, 1:100,000.