My adult daughter is visiting with me for a few weeks and we have enjoyed touring the Metroplex together visiting local sites including Dealey Plaza and the Fort Worth Stockyards. Andrea grew up in a small town in the mountains of north Alabama called Albertville and this is her first visit to the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
As we drove around Dallas this past week Andrea began looking past the sights of Dallas and started pointing out objects we see every day but pay little attention to. These objects reminded her of home – fire hydrants. The particular fire hydrants she began pointing out were manufactured in her home town of Albertville, AL. The fire hydrants have a distinctive “look” and are manufactured by the Mueller Corporation.
Since she first pointed them out we have noticed that Mueller fire hydrants dominate this area of 
Texas and we began comparing the Mueller hydrants to the small sprinkling of other fire hydrant brands around. The most common hydrant model we noticed was a Mueller model with a “fluted bonnet”. We noticed that many of these hydrant bonnets were painted blue and wondered if this was an homage to the famous Texas blue bonnets.
It seems that Andrea’s hometown of Albertville is considered the “Fire Hydrant Capital of the World”, according to the sign at the city limits. We are starting to believe that this statement is true. I personally have travelled to 49 of the 50 states and have noticed Mueller hydrants in most of them. Each fire hydrants is emblazoned with large raised letters spelling out Albertville, AL so they are easy to spot.
Occasionally you will encounter a Mueller hydrant that says Chattanooga, TN instead of Albertville. We found out why. The Mueller Company originally began making a wide variety of products in 
Decatur, Illinois in the mid-1800s. In 1933 Mueller bought Columbian Iron Works, which had been manufacturing hydrants in Chattanooga, Illinois since 1908. Mueller moved the fire hydrant division from Chattanooga to Albertville, AL in 1975. So, when you spot a hydrant that says Chattanooga you can assume it has been online for well over 40 years.
After some research, I discovered that there are two hydrant models referred to as Mueller-Columbian Underwriter Approved fire hydrants, as documented in the Mueller brochure: The Standard Underwriter type, which has hose nozzles screwed into the hydrant barrel (the vertical portion) and does not have independent gate valves and the I.G.N. type, which has Independent Gate Nozzles that bolt on to the barrel. Characteristics of both types is that the 2 piece barrel has a bolted flange joint; and the upper barrel flange has a skirt that overhangs the lower barrel flange.
The earlier hydrants are actually called the “UL Chattanooga Style” model and were made between 1953 and 1979. Nearly identical to the hydrants to the later models, it appears that the Columbian name was dropped from Mueller hydrants at this point in time. UL/FM hydrants are typically in private installations such as warehouses, powerplants, factories, etc.
This all just proves to me once again that “everybody is from somewhere”. My daughter is from the “Fire Hydrant Capital of the World”.
Major Logan
