Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Triana, AL

Triana is an incorporated town in southwestern Madison County, Alabama, sitting on a bluff on the north bank of the Tennessee River about 16 miles southwest of downtown Huntsville.

Triana was originally incorporated on November 13, 1819, before Alabama itself became a state, making it the second town incorporated in Madison County.

The town was reportedly named for Rodrigo de Triana, the crewman credited with first sighting land on Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas.

In the 19th century Triana was a thriving Tennessee River port and shipping center, aided by a canal toward Huntsville, before the railroads eclipsed river trade.

Triana's incorporation later lapsed, and the town was reincorporated on July 13, 1964, with the help of Clyde Foster, who later became its mayor.

The 2020 census counted 2,890 residents in Triana, in 1,102 households — a 482.7 percent increase from just 496 residents in 2010, the fastest growth of any place in Alabama in the 2020 census.

Until the 2020 census, Triana was the only incorporated community in Madison County with a majority-Black population.

In 1977 the EPA warned that fish and waterfowl from Huntsville Spring Branch near Triana carried high levels of DDT traced to Olin Corporation production on Redstone Arsenal; lawsuits by residents were settled, monitoring from 1982 to 1995 reduced DDT levels by 97 percent, and the site remains on the Superfund list.

Triana covers about 2.82 square miles at an elevation of about 604 feet, and the 2020 census recorded a median age of 33.5 years.

Triana is part of the Huntsville-Decatur-Albertville combined statistical area and is served for education by the Madison City Schools district in nearby Madison.