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Opelika is a city located in Lee County in east central Alabama. It is a suburb of Auburn, Alabama and is the county seat of Lee County. As of the 2004, the population of the city is 23,483.

The first white settlers in the area now known as Opelika arrived in the late 1830s after the removal of native peoples by force in 1836-37. The name "Opelika" was taken from a Creek village south of the current downtown, and in Muskogee means "large swamp". Settlement was sporadic until the late 1840s, when Opelika quickly became a commercial center with the coming of the railroad.

In 1848, the Montgomery West Point Railroad Company extended a rail line from Montgomery, Alabama to Opelika, and in 1851 completed a connection to West Point, Georgia, thus connecting Opelika with Atlanta, Georgia. This line was the only direct rail route between New Orleans and the Eastern Seaboard, and rapidly became one of the primary trade lines for shipments of raw cotton from Southern plantations to the North. The Montgomery West Point was soon joined by a rail connection to Columbus, Georgia in 1855, and a connection to Birmingham, Alabama in 1869. Almost overnight, Opelika became a regional hub for commerce.

To manage this rapid growth, Opelika was incorporated as a town on February 9, 1854. As a result of Opelika's transportation infrastructure, many warehouses for storing cotton and other goods were built. With the onset of the Civil War these warehouses were converted to Confederate supply depots. In 1864 and 1865, Union raids commanded by Lovell Rousseau and James H Wilson attacked Opelika, tearing up the railroads and destroying all government property, including Opelika's warehouses.

Soon after the end of the war, the Alabama state legislature created a new county out of parts of Macon, Russell, Chambers, and Tallapoosa counties to be named after Confederate general Robert E. Lee. In 1866, citizens of the new "Lee County" voted Opelika as the county seat, despite the fact that Opelika was technically unincorporated after having its charter revoked for abetting the rebellion against the United States.

After Opelika received a new charter in 1870, rapid growth resumed. The town nearly doubled in size between 1870 and 1900. During this time, Opelika began to gain its reputation as a wild, lawless town. Soon after receiving the new charter, city officials attempted to scam outside investors by issuing fake railroad bonds. For this, the town's charter was revoked again in 1872, and the town was administered as a police district by the state legislature for the following year. Opelika's downtown was packed with saloons, and frequent gunfire in the streets led to railroads ordering passengers passing through Opelika to duck beneath the windows to avoid being shot.

In 1882, voters dismissed the incumbent city government. Unwilling to give up power, the city council nullified the election until the courts ruled against them. When the state yet again revoked Opelika's charter, the city leaders took up arms against those that opposed them, and the governor was forced to send in the militia to restore order. Opelika remained under unelected military rule for the sixteen years until 1899, when Opelika's charter was again restored.

In 1900, local investors founded the Opelika Cotton Mill as the first textile plant in the city, employing 125. Attempts to expand the textile industry in Opelika continued for the next three decades, and in 1925 city officials were able to use a $62,500 bribe to induce the executives of the Pepperell Manufacturing Co. (now WestPoint International) to construct a large mill just outside of the Opelika city limits. The period between 1930 and 1970 would turn out to be Opelika's heyday, as industrial growth turned Opelika into a regional economic powerhouse.

Opelika continued to add factories and other industry throughout the middle years of the twentieth century. In the 1950s, Opelika attracted the nation's first and largest magnetic tape manufacturing plant. In 1963, tire manufacturer Uniroyal constructed a massive plant in Opelika, and around the same time Diversified Products revolutionized the physical fitness equipment industry with products produced their Opelika plant. By the early 1970s, Opelika's industries employed nearly 10,000.

Changes in the national and local economy in the 1970s, though, led Opelika to start a period of decline which continues today. Between 1975 and 2005, factory closings and layoffs have cost Opelika nearly 6,000 jobs. Opelika's sister city Auburn quickly eclipsed Opelika in size and prestige, and has since replaced Opelika as the regional commercial hub. Opelika attempted to counter this decline in the mid-1990s by spending nearly $100 million to build the Northeast Opelika Industrial Park, a so-called "supersite" which provided all the needed infrastructure for a large automobile or semiconductor manufacturing facility. The site attracted serious interest from automakers Audi, Nissan, and Hyundai, but was ultimately rejected by all three due to concerns over Opelika's high crime rate and perception of an inadequate educational system. Opelika made some headway in attracting new jobs in the late 1990s and early 2000s, though roughly 70% of the new jobs were telephone call and commercial distribution centers which paid only a few dollars above minimum wage.

As Opelika's economic base crumbled, the city's population growth slowed to a halt in the latter part of the 20th century, and began a steady decline in the 2000s. Opelika's population peaked in 2001 at 23,623, and as of 2004 stands at 23,483. Some of this loss was attributed to flight from Opelika due to crime; gang activity is prevalent in the city and the violent crime rate is the second highest in the state, and is higher than that of all large American cities except for Detroit, Michigan and Camden, New Jersey. Others left for better schools, as the Opelika school system--traditionally viewed as among the area's top systems--declined to a position well below the national, state, and county averages.

Opelika is governed by a mayor-council government, with a mayor and a five-member city council.

The chief executive official of the city of Opelika is the mayor. The mayor is elected at-large for a four-year term. The mayor has complete executive power in the city, and can appoint and dismiss department heads at will. The current mayor of Opelika is Gary Fuller.

The Opelika city council is the legislative of the city. It passes laws and ordinances, and creates city-wide policy. The city council is made up of five members, chosen for four year terms each from one of five districts. Districts 1 and 2 are arranged to ensure African-American representation on the council, and Districts 3, 4, and 5 are drawn to preserve a white majority. As current demographic trends point to an African-American majority in Opelika within the next decade, it is anticipated that district lines will then be redrawn to ensure a black majority. Current council members through 2008 are:

Opelika is located in north-central Lee County, Alabama, and is bordered by Auburn, Alabama to the northwest, southwest, and west. Opelika lies in the southern reaches of the Piedmont Plateau, and straddles the divide between the Tallapoosa and the Chattahoochee river watersheds. Opelika has an elevation of 812 feet.

Opelika is located at 32°38'50" North, 85°23'22" West (32.647183, -85.389404)sup .

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 138.4 km² (53.4 mi²). 136.7 km² (52.8 mi²) of it is land and 1.7 km² (0.7 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 1.24% water.

Opelika's economy is currently in transition. It is moving away from being a traditional manufacturing town and toward being a blue-collar suburb of regional center Auburn.

Opelika's hard industrial past is still evident in the continued existance of Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Company, which employs 1,400, and textile maker WestPoint International, which employs 750. Since 1994, Opelika has seen layoffs and plant closings eliminate over 3,500 manufacturing jobs. By 2010, Opelika will have managed to replace approximately 700 of these jobs with similar positions with automotive parts suppliers, but signs of trouble in Opelika's existing industry--WestPoint remains mired in bankruptcy proceedings and an eleventh-hour labor agreement that saved Uniroyal from shuttering in 1994 expires in 2006--could signal the imminent end of Opelika's industrial heritage.

Since 1990, Opelika has attracted nearly 2000 jobs through the location of call centers and retail distribution centers to the city. The bulk of jobs created in these facilities tend to pay considerably below the median for the region, but have kept unemployment in Opelika in check.

Opelika has seen far more success in recent years providing services for rapidly-growing nearby Auburn. As Auburn has traditionally been a white-collar city, it has tended to lack the commercial infrastructure needed to support its surging technology, research, and manufacturing base. Opelika businesses have stepped up to fill the gap, and have been highly successful at providing the blue-collar services the larger city needs.

The past few years have also seen a successful trend of opening big-box retail businesses in far western Opelika along the Auburn city limits that primarily serve the Auburn community. In this way Opelika has started to fill the more classic role of suburb to Auburn, a role that looks to be Opelika's economic destiny. Also fulfilling this role is Opelika's largest employer, East Alabama Medical Center, which not only provides health care services to the Auburn area, but to the east Alabama region as a whole.

Opelika is home to a branch of Southern Union Community College. Southern Union is a two-year community and technical college offering academic, industrial, and health sciences training. Southern Union is the only two-year college in Lee County, and is the largest two-year campus in the region.

Opelika's public school system enrolls 4,500 students on nine campuses. Opelika has three primary schools with grades K-2, three intermediate schools with grades 3-5, one middle school with grades 6-8, one high school with grades 9-12, and one "at-risk" school. Opelika's schools have traditionally had strong programs in technology and the arts.

In recent years, Opelika's schools have undergone a steep decline in quality, with average scores on statewide standardized tests falling each and every year since 1995; scores have declined from the 59th percentile in 1995 to the 47th percentile in 2004, a trend contrary to that of most Alabama schools. Much of this decline can be explained by demographic shifts as middle- and upper-class families have moved to Auburn or enrolled their children in home or private schools, resulting in Opelika's percentage of students on free or reduced lunches soaring from 40% in 1995 to 65% in 2004.

Opelika golf course. The site for the course, which hugs the edge of Lake Saugahatchee in Opelika's northwest, was described by Jones as the "single greatest" site for a golf complex that he had ever seen. The course, which is considered to be the jewel of Alabama's Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, has hosted a number of national tournaments, including the 1997 Nike Tour championship, the 1998 LPGA Tournament of Champions, and the 2000 NCAA Mens' Division 1 National Championship.

Parts of the 1979 movie Norma Rae were filmed in Opelika.

of 2000, there are 23,498 people, 9,200 households, and 6,357 families residing in the city. The population density is 171.9mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 55.03% White, 42.89% Black or African American, 0.19% Native American, 0.93% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.27% from other races, and 0.68% from two or more races. 1.07% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There are 9,200 households out of which 34.4% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.2% are married couples living together, 20.2% have a female householder with no husband present, and 30.9% are non-families. 26.5% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.3% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.49 and the average family size is 3.02.

In the city the population is spread out with 27.6% under the age of 18, 9.0% from 18 to 24, 29.8% from 25 to 44, 21.7% from 45 to 64, and 11.8% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 34 years. For every 100 females there are 87.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 81.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city is $33,397, and the median income for a family is $43,200. Males have a median income of $31,237 versus $21,819 for females. The per capita income for the city is $18,023. 17.8% of the population and 14.9% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 26.2% of those under the age of 18 and 14.9% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.