Old Cahawba, Alabama

Old Cahawba is a complex and mysteriously evocative place, an encapsulation of much of the state's history, and a place that is, apparently, a place to leave. It began as a major Native American village, with a palisade wall and a large mound inside. Briefly, it was Alabama's state capital (1820-1826). Before the Civil War, it was a thriving river town, a major distribution point for cotton shipped down the Alabama River from the fertile black belt to the port of Mobile. Some thought that it would become a port town as popular as New York City, but with its constant flooding and lack of connecting railroads the city could not survive. It became a ghost town shortly after the Civil War. Today all that remains in Cahawba are several old street signs, an abandoned plantation home, a few slave quarters, and bits of rubble outlining where homes and businesses once stood, marked by interpretive plaques. Abandoned trailer-homes indicate the last attempt by individuals to inhabit Old Cahawba, fishermen and hunters from the late 1980s, who have, like the other former denizens, mysteriously departed.