Arbacoochee

The label

Why Arbacoochee is called a ghost town

Wikipedia files Arbacoochee in its category of Alabama ghost towns, and Alabama Legacy's history of the Alabama gold rush says places like Arbacoochee became ghost towns when the miners left in 1849. The label rests on a real boom and bust. Gold was found here in 1832, and by 1845 the camp is said to have had about 5,000 people, twenty general stores, five saloons, two hotels, two churches, a school and a race track. Within a few years most of them were gone.

History

Arbacoochee then

The name comes from the Creek village of Abihkuchi, which Wikipedia translates as "a pile at the base." Gold turned up in 1832, and the mines around it are credited with more than $5,000,000 in gold. A post office opened in 1842.

When word of the California strike reached Alabama, most of the miners left; the Alabama Legacy history dates the exodus to 1849. Prospectors came back in 1853, the 1880s and 1903 without finding much. Arbacoochee lived on as a small village: 50 people in 1880, the second-largest place in Cleburne County after Edwardsville. The post office closed in 1904. A fire insurance surveyor's pencil sketch dated February 18, 1922 shows a handful of small buildings and a school on Main Street; the surveyor noted them as all vacant and dilapidated, with bad roofs and flues, and marked one building as the only one occupied. The Arbacoochee census precinct around it counted between 600 and 1,100 people from 1880 to 1950 before it was merged into the Heflin division in 1960.

1832. Gold is found at Arbacoochee.

1842. A post office opens.

1845. The camp reportedly holds about 5,000 people, with 20 general stores, 5 saloons, 2 hotels, 2 churches, a school, a fire department and a race track.

1849. Most miners leave for the California Gold Rush.

1853, 1880s, 1903. Short revivals of prospecting find little gold.

1880. The village counts 50 people; the precinct 877.

1904. The post office closes.

Feb 18, 1922. A fire insurance surveyor sketches Main Street and marks its buildings vacant and dilapidated, with one still occupied.

1950. The Arbacoochee precinct counts 607 people, its last census as a separate division.

2015. A reader's comment calls the site "just trees and kudzu" (December 31).

Today

What is there now

Arbacoochee today is a spot on County Road 42, about ten miles by road south of Heflin, where County Road 811 and, a little to the east, County Road 893 turn off to the south. The USGS Ross Mountain sheets of 1967 and 2001 print the name over a few buildings beside the road with woods all around, and the current aerial view shows rows of planted pines, clearings and logging tracks. We found no marker, cemetery or mine ruin described at the site, and no dated visit report. The newest description is a reader's comment of December 31, 2015, from someone who prospected there in the 1970s, calling it "just trees and kudzu."

Forest Service ownership maps show no national forest land within about two and a half miles, so the woods off the county roads are private as far as we know. You can drive through on County Road 42, but there is no place to walk the old camp.

Historic maps

Arbacoochee on USGS maps, 1900–2001

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the map point. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19001:125,00019671:24,00019751:24,00020011:24,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Heflin, on I-20, is the nearest town. AL 9 and County Roads 19 and 42 lead south to the site. From Atlanta, I-20 west and AL 46 lead there.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL). Times assume dry roads.

Questions

Common questions

Is Arbacoochee a ghost town?

Its gold camp is. It boomed in the 1840s and emptied when the miners left for California in 1849. What remains is a spot on a county road in the woods.

Is there anything left to see?

We found no report of ruins, a marker or a cemetery at the site. A reader's comment of December 2015 calls it just trees and kudzu.

Where was Arbacoochee?

In Cleburne County, about ten miles by road south of Heflin, on County Road 42 where County Roads 811 and 893 turn off.

Nearby

Ghost towns and sites near Arbacoochee

Straight-line distance to other mapped sites in our Alabama index.

• Chulafinnee7.9 mi W · Cleburne
• Tooktocaugee13.2 mi NW · Calhoun
• Fort McClellan18.8 mi NW · Calhoun
• Bluffton30.1 mi N · Cherokee
• Louina31.3 mi S · Randolph
• Chandler Springs32.5 mi SW · Talladega
• Minden35.0 mi W · Calhoun
• Cedric35.0 mi S · Chambers

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Arbacoochee, Alabama", read October 28, 2026: the ghost town category, the name, the 1832 discovery and $5,000,000 output, the 1845 population and businesses, the California exodus, the 1842-1904 post office, the 1880 village of 50, the precinct counts 1880-1950 and the 1960 merger, the coordinates.
2. Alabama Legacy, "Alabama Gold Rush", June 2019: about 5,000 residents by 1845, ghost towns after the 1849 exodus, the revivals of 1853, the 1880s and 1903.
3. Donna R. Causey, "There is gold in the hills of Alabama, at least there was once," Alabama Pioneers, October 2022: a reader's comment of December 31, 2015, from someone who hunted gold at Arbacoochee in the 1970s, describing the site as "just trees and kudzu."
4. Alabama Inspection and Rating Bureau, "Fire insurance map of Arbacoochee, Alabama," 1922, Alabama Department of Archives and History, read October 28, 2026: a pencil sketch dated February 18, 1922 of the buildings on Main Street, marked vacant and dilapidated, with one occupied.
5. USDA Forest Service, basic ownership map service, queried October 28, 2026: no national forest land within about 2.5 miles of the site.
6. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Roads: OpenStreetMap. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits

• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Anniston 1900, 1:125,000; Ross Mountain 1967, 1:24,000; Ross Mountain 1975, 1:24,000; Ross Mountain 2001, 1:24,000.