Digital Alabama (https://digitalalabama.com/article/alabama-ghost-towns)
Alabama Ghost Town: Chulafinnee Alabama
Digital Alabama does extensive research prior to investigating a subject in order that we may be as productive as possible in discovering valid and useful information. Research of a subject more often than not requires extensive travel throughout the state so we map subject localities as one of the first steps.
Ghost towns in Alabama are a popular subject for more reasons than you may think. For instance, it is often required that we survey an abandoned property or ghost town in order to recreate a past event in order to help determine if the event could have actually occured as described in old newspaper articles or testimony of witnesses.
We are not “ghost hunters” or any other type of “fill-in-the-blank hunters” with the exception of “truth.” Our small team consists entirely of trained and experienced professional investigators and investigative journalists searching for the real story – the truth. We are extremely fortunate to be able to call on former colleagues and a multitude of local experts across the great state of Alabama.
All of us here at Digital Alabama have what we consider the best jobs in the world. We are paid to travel the state and try to solve not only current mysteries but some of the oldest recorded or rumored incidents in our state’s history.
In summary let me say that you are the beneficiary of thousands of dollars worth of our time. We never publish results of our investigations without permission of our clients but we do fill these pages with incidentals of our investigations that make for some very interesting reading. We would love to work on your case. We would also greatly appreciate any information you may be able to share that would help us with our endeavors. We offer “Total Threat Solutions™” using the world-standard investigative process.
Ghost towns in Alabama are a popular subject for more reasons than you may think. For instance, it is often required that we survey an abandoned property or ghost town in order to recreate a past event in order to help determine if the event could have actually occured as described in old newspaper articles or testimony of witnesses.
Bibb County was established in 1818 and called by the name of Cahaba. Two years later it was changed to that of Bibb, in honor of William W. Bibb, the first Governor of the State.
Bibb County was one of the largest counties in the State; but a great deal of its area has been cut off to make up the surrounding counties established later on in the history of the State.
Claiborne is a ghost town on a bluff above the Alabama River in Monroe County, Alabama.
Situated near the Federal Road, Claiborne began during the Mississippi Territory period with a ferry over the river.
Arbacoochee in Cleburne County, Alabama was the site where gold was first discovered in Alabamam in 1832. Arbacoochee was located near the present CR-42 between SH 46 & SH 9, nine miles southeast of Heflin, Alabama.This was a gold-mining town that was established in the mid 1830s. By 1845 the population had grown to around 5,000 people, with most of the residents living in either tents or shacks.
Chulafinnee was a gold mining town about 12 miles south of Heflin, AL. During the boom years, it was about half the size of Arbacoochee, but had more brick buildings.
The mine filed was destroyed by one of the King brothers that were prospectors in the area.
The town was still listed on the state maps as late as 1878.
Louina Alabama was settled by the Indians, pushed to Alabama by the white settlers from the overcrowded east in the 1830s. Louina’s trading post quickly became the metropolis of its day with the area producing quantities of gold. Today Louina is a ghost town.
According to tradition and folklore, the Louina area coughed up gold and silver.
Wakefield is a ghost town in Washington County, Alabama, most famous as the place where former vice president Aaron Burr was arrested in 1807.
Battelle Alabama was a thriving mining community at the turn of the century, having spread out to the base of Lookout Mountain, five miles north of Valley Head, Alabama. Now, the forest has taken over, and no buildings remain in what was Battelle. Ruins include scattered bricks, rotted lumber, and a few pieces of metal.
Failetown is a ghost town in Clarke County. Today Failetown sits abandoned. The Faile Cemetery, Post Office, and other homes in various states of decay are all that remain of the town today.
Compiled in 1921 by Thomas McAdory Owen, LL.D.
Post office and station at the crossing of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad and the Southern Railway; in the northern suburbs of Anniston, 2 miles from the center of the city. It is one of the cotton-mill and iron-mining sections of the city of Anniston. Population: 1910-528. The locality was settled by the Hudgins family in the late thirties and for years was the terminus of the Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad, being the shipping station for the Oxford furnace. During the War, the Confederate Government operated both the railroad and the furnace, the iron being shipped to Selma to make “Ironclads” for the Confederacy.
There are several buildings within Cahaba’s city limits that are still intact today, including its Civil War federal prison and a farmhouse built in 1841, although it is long uninhabited.
Cedric is a ghost town in northeastern Chambers County, Alabama.
