Ghost towns, where once people settled, their hopes high for a good life, a chance at the American Dream. Ghost Towns, where once children played and dreamed of spending the rest of their live. They dot the landscape all across the country and a summer visit to them is a lesson in history and a lesson in humanity.
There are some very interesting ghost towns in Alabama that make perfect places to visit on a summer vacation. Imagine a nice sunny summer day when you can go and visit the ruins and the historical cemeteries of the ghost towns of Alabama. Spend a summer afternoon walking in the footsteps of the original residents, footsteps made when it was a thriving community, when the thought of becoming a ghost town did not even exist.
Back in 1814 a group of settlers from New England came to Alabama with a dream. A dream to build their own town by a river, much like what they had left behind. They were used to the water and the river life and they had the courage to leave everything behind and strike out on their own, which was not an easy thing in 1814. It was a long hard journey and they settled by the Tensaw River. The named their town Blakely, Alabama after the leader of the group. The community flourished, they built their town with tree lined streets and the population grew to 4,000. But across the bay was the city of Mobile. Only one would survive, only one would get the commerce necessary to continue to grow. That one was Mobile. Slowly the people left to go where the jobs were. Today there is no evidence that the town of Blakely ever existed. It was used as a Civil War fort, but after that nature took over and reclaimed the land as its own.
Today you can visit the Site of Blakely, Alabama , which is now a state park. There are hiking trails where once the buildings stood, the buildings that would be a ghost town today. They have camp grounds and picnic areas and who knows, maybe on a walk through the woods, you will meet one of those settlers who still thinks that the town is real, and not a ghost town living only in the past.
Back in the late 1700’s, part of Alabama was under Spanish control and they and they built a fort and called it San Estaban. Eventually it became a US Territory and the name was changed to St. Stephen’s. The little community grew, it was on the Tombigbee River, there was plenty of game, fresh fish and the river for commerce. A perfect place for a growing community, that is until Alabama became a state in 1819. St. Stephens was overlooked as the place for the State Capital, followed by several yellow fever epidemics and the advances in transportation that made the river less important. By the time of the Civil War, St. Stephen’s , Alabama was no more, just a ghost town, a collection of abandoned buildings and abandoned dreams.
Today, you can visit and see all that remains of St. Stephen’s, Alabama the remnants of three cemeteries. It is now a state park with campgrounds, horseback riding through the woods where the town once stood, where you can feel the presence of the settlers who had no choice but to let St. Stephen’s become a ghost town.
Cahaba, Alabama was once one of the most famous cities in Alabama, it was the first capital of Alabama, but only a temporary one. When Cahaba lost the bid to become the permanent capital to Tuscaloosa, it was close to being abandoned, becoming a ghost town. However, unlike most Ghost Towns, Cahaba got a second chance at life. The coming of the railroad and the importance of having a port for shipping cotton breathed life back into Cahaba and the population was close to 3,000 by the time of the Civil War. Then things changed again. There were more than human casualties from the war. It also killed the town of Cahaba, making it a ghost town forever. The cotton warehouse was turned into a prison and when a great flood followed, the residents literally picked up what they could of the houses and moved on to greener pastures. There is a park now where Chabah once stood, and parts of the ghost town can still be seen. You can walk the streets where once commerce took place and the ghosts still look for the town they once called home.
