Why Black Warrior Lures?

So, why the name Black Warrior Lures? Where does it come from? What does it mean?

The name Black Warrior goes back to the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance. It includes history, geography, battles, explorers, natives and geopolitics, the classic stuff of legend.

First the Black Warrior River flows through west-central Alabama in the southeastern United States.  The Black Warrior is also the main tributary to the Tombigbee River which makes its way to the Gulf of Mexico. The primary cities along that grew up along the Black Warrior River include Tuscaloosa and Northport, Alabama. Tuscaloosa served as the capital of the state of Alabama from 1826 to 1846.

Now both the city of Tuscaloosa and The Black Warrior River are named after the same person: Chief Tuskaloosa. He was a chieftan over a large area which eventually became the Chotcaw Indians. Also city of Tuscaloosa is a derived word from Chief Tuskaloosa’s native language, i.e., tuska meaning black, loosa meaning warrior: Chief Black Warrior, Chief Tuskaloosa.

Black Warrior Lures, the Black Warrior River and Chief Tuskaloosa’s name meaning black warrior means that these lures fish the same waters that Chief Tuskaloosa’s people and descendants would have fished.

Chief Tuskaloosa died in 1540 at the Battle of Mabila. Hernandes de Soto started his North American expedition in 1539. Tuskaloosa’s and de Soto’s forces fought there.

Consider that Christopher Columbus died in 1506. Even Martin Luther’s 95 Theses was posted in 1517. 1547 is when Miguel Cervantes was born. Cervantes was the guy who wrote Don Quixote de la Mancha, arguably the world’s first novel. It’s amazing that in that world of exploration that we have a local connection to the world’s greatest explorers both real and fictional. Consider the Day of the Armada in 1588: That’s the day the British Navy defeated the Spanish Armada, lots of things going on in the world at that time. The world Chief Tuskaloosa died in was the same world Miguel de Cervantes was born into, and you have a connection to these people and to this history by fishing lures that were designed, tested and fished in these same waters as these great people. All things connected. That’s an awesome thought.

Catch’em all!

Damon

Chief Pencil Pusher and Lure Designer at Black Warrior Lures