Biohazard Cleanup Near Boaz Boaz, AL

Boaz is a city in southeastern Marshall County, Alabama, that also extends south into Etowah County.

First settled in the 1850s, Boaz was officially founded on November 11, 1878, by the Sparks family of Georgia.

The city was named after Boaz, the biblical figure from the Book of Ruth, and it was incorporated in 1897.

Boaz sits atop Sand Mountain, a plateau roughly 1,080 feet above sea level, and the Tennessee Valley Divide crosses the eastern side of the city.

As of the 2020 census, Boaz had a population of 10,107 people.

The 2020 census counted 3,888 households in Boaz, and the median age of residents was 36.6 years.

Boaz became nationally known for outlet shopping after the VF Corporation opened an outlet store in an abandoned factory in the early 1980s; by the late 1980s the city had about 130 outlet stores drawing some five million visitors a year.

Most of the Boaz outlet stores have since closed, and three buildings of the old outlet center were demolished in 2016.

Before World War II, Boaz's economy rested mainly on cotton, but boll weevil damage and the Great Depression pushed it toward livestock and poultry, and after the war it developed a durable automotive sales industry.

Snead State Community College is located in Boaz, and its Snead Junior College Historic District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.