Erie

The label

Why Erie is called a ghost town

Erie is on the ghost town lists because it really did empty. It was Greene County's first county seat and a cotton port with an estimated 1,500 people, stores, a hotel, a jail and a newspaper. Wikipedia's article on Erie calls it a ghost town and files it in the category of Alabama ghost towns, and Wikipedia's list of ghost towns in Alabama classes the site as barren. A long-running ghost town directory lists it too, and Alabama Pioneers called it a ghost town in 2015.

History

Erie then

Erie stood at Erie Bend, on the east bank of the Black Warrior River west of Greensboro. The legislature incorporated it on December 18, 1820, and it served as the seat of Greene County, which then reached across the river. Thomas Eastin printed the Greene County Gazette there as early as 1823, and the town shipped cotton downriver to Mobile.

The site was muddy, its water was poor, and it sat at the edge of a county whose people were moving west. In the late 1830s yellow fever spread through town, by one account from a sick man taken off a steamboat, and floods came too. In 1838 the county seat moved to Eutaw. Most people left for Eutaw and Greensboro, and the town was soon abandoned. When Hale County was formed in 1867, Erie's side of the river went with it. The last house burned in 1933.

1819. Erie becomes the first county seat of Greene County, per the county GenWeb history and Wikipedia.

Dec 18, 1820. Erie is incorporated.

1823. Thomas Eastin publishes the Greene County Gazette at Erie.

Late 1830s. Yellow fever and floods strike the town.

1838. The county seat moves to Eutaw. Most residents leave.

1867. Hale County is created and takes in the Erie site.

1933. The last remaining house burns.

2008. A cemetery survey finds no tombstones at the Erie Cemetery location (March).

2015. Alabama Pioneers reports only a few bricks and broken stones on private land (October 29).

Today

What is there now

The townsite is private land, and the newest report we found, from October 2015, describes only a few bricks or broken stones. A hunting club may now use the land. The Erie Cemetery, which a county cemetery survey calls the oldest in Hale and Greene counties, lies a short way east on Erie Road south of Mason Road; in March 2008 the surveyors could not find a tombstone there.

The 1947 Mason Bend sheet below shows the river at Erie Bend and Old Lock No. 6 with farm roads and a few buildings, and no town; the 1986 sheet names Erie Bend and Mason Bend. Today's map and aerial show woods and fields above the bend. County Road 15 and Erie Road come within about a mile of the site. The drive routes' last 0.8 mile follows an unnamed track from Erie Road onto the private land, so stop at Erie Road unless the landowner has given you leave.

Two figures in Wikipedia's article don't fit the site. It gives an elevation of 548 feet, but the USGS elevation model puts the mapped point at about 90 feet, and the 1947 sheet marks the river at 73 feet with the 100-foot contour just above the bank. Its text also puts Erie 11 miles east of Greensboro, while its own coordinates, at Erie Bend, are about 11 miles west, where other sources place the town.

Historic maps

Erie on USGS maps, 1947–1986

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.

19471:24,00019861:100,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Greensboro is the nearest town. AL 14 runs west from it toward Eutaw, and County Road 15 and Erie Road lead south toward the river bend. The townsite itself is private.

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

Directions go to Erie Road where the track to the townsite turns off, about 0.8 mile east of the site, where the drive ends, not to the townsite.

Questions

Common questions

Is Erie, Alabama a ghost town?

Yes. It was abandoned soon after the county seat moved to Eutaw in 1838, and its last house burned in 1933.

Is there anything left of Erie?

Only a few bricks and broken stones, per a 2015 report, on private land. A 2008 survey found no tombstones at the town cemetery site.

Can you visit Erie?

The townsite is private. You can drive County Road 15 and Erie Road nearby, but there is nothing of the town to see from them.

Nearby

Ghost towns and sites near Erie

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

• Arcola11.2 mi S · Hale
• Aigleville14.0 mi S · Marengo
• Vienna30.9 mi NW · Pickens
• Kaulton34.8 mi N · Tuscaloosa
• Prairie Bluff46.4 mi SE · Wilcox
• Brownville46.7 mi N · Tuscaloosa
• Cahaba49.1 mi SE · Dallas
• Cadle50.6 mi NE · Bibb

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Erie, Alabama", read October 28, 2026: the ghost town label, first county seat, the estimated 1,500 people, stores, hotel and jail, the cotton port, the 1838 move to Eutaw and its reasons, yellow fever and floods, Hale County in 1867, the 1933 fire, the private site, the cemetery to the east, the coordinates, and the 548 ft elevation and "11 miles east of Greensboro" that this page questions.
2. Wikipedia, "List of ghost towns in Alabama", read October 28, 2026: Erie classed as a barren site.
3. ghosttowns.com, Erie, read October 28, 2026: the 22-acre town, its newspaper, the yellow fever account, the move to Eutaw and Greensboro, the landowners, the possible hunting club, a few piles of bricks, the location 11 miles west of Greensboro near Lock 6.
4. Donna R. Causey, "Erie was once a vibrant town of 1,500...," Alabama Pioneers, October 29, 2015 (archived copy, March 5, 2016): Erie called a ghost town, incorporation on December 18, 1820, the Greene County Gazette of 1823, the steamboat yellow fever account, the 1838 move, the 1933 fire, the private land with a few bricks or broken stones.
5. Greene County, Alabama GenWeb cemetery survey, Erie Cemetery, with its directions page: Erie Road south of Mason Road, the coordinates, the oldest cemetery in Hale and Greene counties, no tombstones found in March 2008.
6. Greene County, Alabama GenWeb, "First Towns and Landmarks": Erie founded 1819 on the east bank of the river, the yellow fever tale, the poor water and muddy site, the move in 1838.
7. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Erie Bend and the river level: USGS topographic maps (1947, 1986). Routes and roads: OSRM and 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): Mason Bend 1947, 1:24,000; Demopolis 1986, 1:100,000.