BlockBefore

Liberty, Alabama

22 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1885 and the latest in 1984. It stands in the Crossville census division. It lies in ZIP code area 35957. It stands on Painter Branch. The Survey maps it on the Rodentown quadrangle.

Liberty within DeKalb County

Topographic sheets covering this place

12 surveys from 22 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

105 since 1997

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 105 fires within 5 miles of Liberty between 1997 and 2020, burning about 632 acres in total. 1 started naturally. 31 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning49
Arson/incendiarism31
Missing data/not specified/undetermined18
Equipment and vehicle use3
Railroad operations and maintenance2
Natural1
Smoking1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
8 September 2016Debris and open burningunder an acreAlabama Forestry Commission20160908-3
30 September 2019Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20190930-23
25 September 2019Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20190925-16
25 September 2010Missing data/not specified/undetermined46 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
23 September 2015Missing data/not specified/undetermined15 acresAlabama Forestry CommissionNOR-20150923-001
18 September 2010Debris and open burning4.5 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
17 September 2010Debris and open burning1.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commissionnot named
16 September 2016Debris and open burning3.0 acresAlabama Forestry Commission20160916-14

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in DeKalb County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Liberty: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Iron, Manganese. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
C W Chumley PropertyManganesePast Producer1951
Leed Gap AreaIronPast ProducerHematite

Every working recorded in DeKalb County

Storms near this place

1 since 2014

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Liberty in 1 storm report in 2014: 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
April 2014Tornado (EF2)Liberty-A strong tornado tracked from Etowah into DeKalb County producing damage of EF-2 intensity. Just south of where CR 4 and 450 meet, a manufactured home was completely destroyed. The undercarriage was so badly mangled and twisted up, it was nearly unrecognizable. Trees were also debarked at this location.||Where CR 4/450 and 455 meet, a single-story home was heavily damaged and shifted off its foundation. Nearly the entire roof was lifted. The tornado continued to produce damage as it tracked northeast, crossing CR 25. The tornado was at least 1/4 mile wide at this point with noticeable damage seen along CR 4 (east of the center track) and CR 455 (west of the track). The tornado then took a slight jog to the north and crossed CR 457 and 29 where several homes sustained significant loss of roof covering/shingles and trees were either snapped or uprooted. The tornado appeared to enter a weakening phase at this point. On the west side of the track, a small farm outbuilding collapsed and a large oak tree fell on top of a home along CR 29. Trees were either uprooted or snapped along CR 1920. The tornado crossed CR 4 again (just north of CR 1920) and approached the higher terrain/ridgetop area west of Dugout and Little Sand Valley. Trees were seen snapped or uprooted. A barn was destroyed along CR 4, just south of Coal Creek. The tornado had narrowed significantly by this point but was still producing winds between 80-90 mph.||Nearing the end of its life, the tornado crossed Highway 227 over the higher terrain, snapping and uprooting a narrow corridor of trees. Just north of highway 227, along CR 12 just north of Hayes Gap, additional trees were snapped. No additional/definitive damage was seen north of this location, so the tornado is believed to have lifted in the higher terrain just north of CR 12 and west of CR 221 in southern DeKalb County, about 4 miles southeast of Crossville.

Every storm recorded in DeKalb County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Arona2.1 miles22
Mount Zion (historical)2.2 miles22
Rodentown2.3 miles22
Marcus (historical)3.3 miles20
Rains (historical)4.1 miles22
Kilpatrick4.4 miles22
Lathamville4.5 miles22
Hendrixville5.1 miles20

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 150332. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.