Alabama Ghost Town

If you find yourself in Dallas County, Alabama and you have a few hours to kill, you might want to take your detector to the location of what once was a thriving town with a lot of prosperous residents.

The town of Cahaba, Alabama was established in 1750 near the junction of the Cahaba and Alabama rivers about 14 miles southwest of Selma, Alabama. This turned out to be a not so great idea.

Over the years many wealthy individuals became residents of the town however the town itself seemed to be destined for obscurity due to bad luck. Before Cahaba was established the site was an old Indian village that the Indians abandoned and apparently for a good reason.

Being at the junction of two rivers the town had a tendency to get flooded. After flooding almost completely destroyed the town in 1828 it was rebuilt and reached it’s peak population of about 5000 people in 1850. During the civil war the Confederates used Cahaba as a prison and military outpost and the town continued to thrive as much as it could during the war.

In 1865 the town was once again destroyed by a third major flood and that was the end of Cahaba. The town, or what was left of it, was abandoned by the last few residents in 1866 leaving behind anything that may have been buried during (or before) the flood.

There are rumors that because of the wealthy residents of the town that there are several treasures that were buried, especially around the time of the civil war, but were not recovered because of the flood. Just because of the flooding, there should be plenty of relics to locate on this site and I would bet there should be some nice coins to be found that might have been in the homes and businesses when the flood(s) hit.

If you are planning on looking at this site you might try going by the courthouse in Selma, Alabama first. At one time they had a scale model of Cahaba on display. This would give you the layout of the town and a good start on where to look. I wouldn't plan on going during the rainy season!