Ketona Lakes

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Ketona Lakes is a pair of flooded limestone quarries fed by Five Mile Creek and underground springs near the intersection of Pine Hill Road and Alabama State Highway 79 in Tarrant.

The Ketona Quarries were operated beginning in the 1880s or 1890s and purchased in 1903 by the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Company. TCI built rudimentary housing for some of its workers, establishing the predominantly-black Ketona community, while those not eligible for company housing settled nearby at Brummitt Heights.

Due to the increasing cost of pumping water out of the pits and the limited space for expansion, the company ceased operations in 1932 and the pits rapidly filled to groundwater level. In the late 1930s TCI engineer J. M. Sponsler and inventor James Justis tested a prototype of their submarine rescue apparatus in the flooded quarry.

For decades afterward the lakes were a popular swimming hole, despite the presence of cold water currents below the surface which caused cramps and led to multiple drownings. The lake has also been used frequently as a dumping site for stolen automobiles.

Angler T. S. Hudson caught the world record bluegill in the smaller of the lakes on April 9, 1950, suprassing the previous record holder, also caught at Ketona Lakes, by Coke McKenzie in 1947. McKenzie's catch was stuffed and displayed at the Richardson Hardware Co.

Ketona and the Ketona Lakes site were annexed into Tarrant in 1973. The property is now owned by the Drummond Company and is not open to the public.

References

  • Phillips, John E. (October 1, 1979) "The Sneaky Truth About Big Bream." Outdoor Life Vol. 164, No. 4, pp. 96-97, 145-147
  • Bennett, Jim (January 2013) "Inventors, We Have Had Lots of Them." The Jefferson Journal. Jefferson County Historical Association
  • Songer, Ray (2014) Our Hometown Tarrant, AL USA. self-published (lulu.com) ISBN 9781312629509