Tuscaloosa, city, seat of Tuscaloosa County, western Alabama, on the Black Warrior River; incorporated 1819. It is a center of an agricultural and mineral-rich region that produces coal, iron ore, limestone, cotton, and timber. Manufactures include motor-vehicle parts, tires, metal products, magnetic tapes and disks, and chemicals. It is the seat of the University of Alabama (1831) and Stillman College (1876). The community was settled in 1816 on the site of a former village of the Creek tribe. It served as the state capital from 1826 to 1846. In 1865 Union troops burned much of the city. It is named for the Choctaw leader Tuskaloosa (“Black Warrior”), who was defeated in the region in 1540 by the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. Population 75,211 (1980); 77,759 (1990); 83,376 (1998 estimate).
