Coleman Lakes

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Coleman Lakes is a lake community in McCalla. It is accessed from Eastern Valley Road from the north and Fletcher Road from the south.

In the early 1950s, R. C. and Bud Coleman sold Coleman Auto Parts in Powderly and the proceeds from the sale went into the purchasing and development of 400 acres of land in McCalla.

A road was built into the property and then the first lake was built. It was stocked with bass, bluegills, and shellcrackers. That first lake opened to the public in 1953. Fishing permits were $1.00 a day. Wooden boats were also rented for $1.00. Over the next several years, six more lakes were built and opened to the public for fishing.

Bud Coleman worked inside the store and R.C. Coleman worked outside, maintaining the property and supervising the building of roads and lakes. Land was subdivided along one of the lakefronts, but no home lots sold. Much of the bait that was sold to fishermen came from an on-premises catalpa tree farm and meal worm barn.

On June 20, 1958, R. C. died and Bud Coleman took control of the business. Bud designated one of the smaller ponds as a catfish pond. That endeavor was unsuccessful because most of the catfish died soon after being dumped into the lake. He also built a large picnic area with barbeque pits and concrete tables. The purpose of that was to drive customers deeper into the development. After a fire burned the entire picnic area, the project was abandoned.

The fishing and bait business continued to be profitable, until the entire development was sold to C. P. Griffin in 1960. Griffin was the person who had originally sold the property to R. C. and Bud. A portion of Bud’s payment for Coleman Lakes was raw land on the north side of Rock Mountain near McCalla. After that land was developed, it became the community of Rock Mountain Lakes.

Today, Coleman Lakes is an upscale lake community of several hundred homes and fishing is permitted for residents only.

Publications

  • Coleman, Bill (March 2016) The Life and Times of Bud Coleman of Jefferson County, Alabama. Book One: 1929 - 1978. CreateSpace Publishing. ISBN 153084505X

External links