MISSALA STAGES, INC./MISSALA TRIALWAYS Missala Stages was listed in the 1939 Russell’s Travel Guide as operating out of Oakman, Alabama with J. H. Deason as the owner. The route was from Birmingham to Jasper to Sulligent, Alabama. Obviously the company name is made of a conjunction of Mississippi and Alabama. By 1943 the company had moved its headquarters to Jasper, Alabama. The company was incorporated on May 25, 1946 in Jasper, Alabama by Mr. & Mrs. James H. Deason and R. Foster Deason. By 1948 the company was running to New Albany, Mississippi. It joined the National Trailways Bus System in 1949 and remained until 1951.

In the early 1940s Mr. Deason brought Lewis W. Capps to Jasper as Travels Manager. Capps was hired away from Birmingham Continental Trailways. He also had ownership experience with Blueway Bus Lines that served mining communities in South Walker and West Jefferson counties.

In 1954 Missala was operating 18 buses over 916 route miles. Missala Stages, Inc. operated until 1970.

After moving from Oakman to Jasper, the Missala Stages bus station was located in in a former gas station on the southeast corner 3rd Ave & 20th Street. Success brought the need for a new and larger bus station so construction began on the corner of 19th Sreet and Commerce Avenue. It had a large waiting room, cafe, and the buses were actually driven inside the building out of the elements for loading and unloading luggage and passengers. While there seldom were more than three buses at a time, up to six buses could fit inside. The top floor was a hotel.

During the height of their success Missala boasted that a bus left Jasper for Birmingham, and a bus left Birmingham for Jasper “every hour on the hour” throughout the day and evening.

This building is currently occupied by Warren & Associates law firm.

Birmingham Trailways Bus Station was a bus station serving interstate buses operated by the Continental Trailways Association and Missala Stages. It was located at 1900 4th Avenue North, on the northwest corner of the intersection with 19th Street North, the present site of a Wells Fargo drive-thru ATM.

The station building had previously served as a grocery store. The entrance faced 4th Avenue while buses pulled into a 50' x 150' lot extending to the alley behind the building from 19th Street. A 12-foot deep shed roof protected passengers waiting outside. Buses departed from the station by continuing through 4th Alley North to 20th Street. Inside the station was a Union News Co. restaurant and a Travel Bureau tourist agency office. The station had segregated waiting areas with a total of 42 seats. Paul. G. Sutter was the station's manager in the early 1960s.