Growing up in the mid to late 50s and early 60s in north Shelby County included many experiences with the Cahaba- from learning to swim below the dam on Highway 91 (now 280), to regularly stopping for a cool drink from a spring feeding the Little Cahaba near Lake Purdy when on one of my multi-mile bicycle trips. Some of the stops were the steel bridge (we called it the Bob Steele bridge) on Hardin Hollow Road (now Cahaba Beach; the swinging bridge below the Lake Purdy dam; Bishop's creek (not the Cahaba, but a tributary) near New Hope (now Indian Springs); Camp Horner; several swimming holes along Grants Mill Road; and a couple of lazy-day spots along Sicard Hollow Road. Below the dam near highway 91 much of the river bottom was covered in fine coal dust from coal washers upstream, probably Acmar and/or Overton, but the coal fines were dense and stayed put much like sand at the beach. Later in my teen years I discovered Bull Dog Bend and tubing, but still visited the Grants Mill area every summer. The Cahaba is a fixture in my memories.
Don Hooks