About Us:

Our city is a sparkling jewel sitting in the foothills of the Northwest Alabama mountain region. Our history is long and colorful and we would love to share it with you here through our community website.

The town of Brilliant was built around the coal mining industry in the late 1800’s early 1900’s. To this day, there remain several buildings of historical significance that are important to the citizens of Brilliant and to honor our past we now proudly host an annual arts and crafts festival known as Coal Fest each May.

History:

The Town of Brilliant is located in the southeastern portion of Marion County along Alabama Highway 129, approximately 15 miles southeast of Hamilton, the county seat, 10 miles west of the Winston and Walker county lines, and 7 miles north of the Fayette county line.

The present Town of Brilliant was incorporated as Boston, Alabama and was named for the Bostick family. There were two stores, a blacksmith shop, and down the hill on the Illinois Central Railroad, there was the Brilliant Coal Company with an office, depot, commissary (company store), doctors’ office, barber shop, and post office. Later when the Brilliant Coal Company moved its location, they moved the post office to the top of the hill to Boston. This presented a problem since there was already a Boston post office in the state. It was decided to change the name of the town to Brilliant to honor the coal company that had brought such prosperity to the area. The community was first incorporated in 1927.