Abandoned Towns

Former town · nothing left · Talladega County, Alabama

Gantts Quarry

A marble company town outside Sylacauga that peaked at 542 people in 1930 and emptied after its company houses came down in the late 1960s.

33°08′54″N 86°17′22″W
Nothing left

Nothing is left of the company town at Gantts Quarry. The marble company tore down its houses in the late 1960s, the census has counted nobody there since 2000, and the town was dissolved at the end of 2001. Its little post office building survives, moved to Sylacauga in 2004, where a state historical marker went up beside it in 2026.

The label

Why Gantts Quarry is called a ghost town

Wikipedia's article on Gantts Quarry 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 it as abandoned, a former mining town. The state historical marker put up at its old post office in 2026 calls it a vanished town (transcribed on the Historical Marker Database). The label is fair. It was an incorporated town with a mayor and council, it counted 542 people in 1930, and its census population fell to zero by 2000.

History

Gantts Quarry then

Dr. Edward Gantt is credited with finding the white marble here. The Encyclopedia of Alabama says he noticed it around 1814 while traveling with Andrew Jackson and came back in 1834 to buy land; Wikipedia dates his find to 1830. Wikipedia adds that a block from the quarry went into the Washington Monument.

The Alabama Marble Company took over the old Gantt quarry early in the 1900s: in 1906 by the Mining History Association's account, 1908 by the Encyclopedia's. It built houses for its workers, and a town grew up around the pits. A post office opened in 1905, by the account on its marker, and its small frame building also served as the town library. Gantts Quarry incorporated in 1910, largely to keep Sylacauga from annexing it.

The Depression and the fall in demand for building marble wore the town down. In 1967 Alabama Marble shut its structural operations and stopped producing building slabs, turning to ground calcium carbonate. In the late 1960s the company demolished its houses and the residents moved away. Postal service ended in 1972. Seven people were left in a 1998 estimate, none in 2000, and the town was disincorporated effective December 31, 2001. Much of its land appears to have been annexed into Sylacauga.

1814. Dr. Edward Gantt notices marble here on a trip with Andrew Jackson, per the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

1830-1834. Gantt finds the marble (1830, Wikipedia) or buys the land and opens a quarry (1834, Encyclopedia of Alabama).

1905. The Gantts Quarry post office opens, per its 2026 marker.

1906-1908. The Alabama Marble Company takes over the old Gantt quarry.

1910. Gantts Quarry incorporates as a town.

1920. Census: 413 people.

1930. Census: 542, the peak.

1932. A tornado wrecks the post office building, which is repaired and reopened.

1960. Census: 238.

1967. Alabama Marble shuts its structural operations and stops making building slabs.

Late 1960s. The company tears down its houses and residents move away. The 1970 census counts 63.

1972. Postal service ends.

1990. Census: 7.

2000. Census: 0.

Dec 31, 2001. The town is disincorporated.

2004. The Sylacauga Historical Preservation and Conservation Society moves the post office building to Sylacauga to save it from demolition.

2024. The old post office goes on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage.

2026. The City of Sylacauga and the Alabama Historical Commission put up a historical marker at the post office (photographed March 11).

Today

What is there now

The Gantts Quarry post office, restored after its move to Sylacauga, October 2011
The Gantts Quarry post office, restored after its move to Sylacauga, October 2011 · Photo: Rivers Langley; SaveRivers, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

The census has counted nobody at Gantts Quarry in 2000, 2010 and 2020. Today's USGS map still prints the name, beside the deep pits of the marble workings west of Sylacauga, and the aerial view shows quarry roads and faces, a pond in an old pit and woods where the town stood. On a tour of the quarry overlook in a video posted in April 2023, a local guide pointed past the trees to where the town had been and said none of it is there anymore.

You can still look into the quarry. The Imerys Gantt's Quarry Observation Point, about a mile northeast of the mapped townsite off Sylacauga-Fayetteville Highway, was dedicated on May 22, 2012 and is made available through a partnership between Imerys and the City of Sylacauga, by its welcome sign. A video posted in July 2024 shows its gravel lot, display blocks of white marble and a fenced view down into the pit. Its sign says the point stands about 600 feet above sea level and the bottom of the quarry once reached about 150 feet above sea level. The rest of the quarry is a working mine; stay at the overlook.

The one town building left is the post office, a small white frame building moved to Sylacauga in 2004 and restored behind the B.B. Comer Museum, at North Broadway Avenue and West 8th Street. It went on the Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage in 2024, and its state historical marker, which calls it the last remnant of a vanished town, was photographed there in March 2026. The 1915 Gantts Quarry sheet below shows the town as a cluster of buildings and roads with a quarry to the northeast; by the 1980 Sylacauga West sheet the name sits beside the quarry with scattered buildings along the roads.

Video

At the quarry overlook

A local visitor tries the Imerys Gantt's Quarry Observation Point for the first time on a cloudy summer day. He shows the gravel lot ringed with blocks of white marble, the welcome sign and the interpretive signs, and reads them out: the marble's purity, the size of the seam, and the blue-green water pooled in the bottom of the pit.

Play “Imery's - Gantt's Quarry 2024” from YouTube
“Imery's - Gantt's Quarry 2024”, by Eddie's Great Adventures & Video's on YouTube. The player loads from YouTube when you press play.

Historic maps

Gantts Quarry on USGS maps, 1915–1980

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.

USGS topographic map around Gantts Quarry, 1915
Gantts Quarry sheet, 1915, 1:48,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

The townsite is about four miles southwest of downtown Sylacauga, off Quarry Road, beside the working quarry. The place to stop is the quarry overlook about a mile to its northeast, and the old post office is in Sylacauga itself, behind the B.B. Comer Museum.

USGS topographic map of Sylacauga and the marble quarries to its southwest, with routes drawn on it

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

From downtown Sylacauga4.3 miabout 12 min
  1. From downtown Sylacauga, head out on Norton Avenue.0.4 mi
  2. Turn right on West Fort Williams Street (CR 511).1.4 mi
  3. Turn left on US 231/US 280.0.4 mi
  4. Turn right on Coaling Road, then right on Chappell Street.0.9 mi
  5. At the end of the road, turn right on Sorrell Road.0.2 mi
  6. Turn left on Quarry Road.0.9 mi
  7. Turn left on Gantts Lane, where the route ends.0.1 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Directions go to the Imerys Gantt's Quarry Observation Point, about a mile northeast of the townsite, where the drive ends, not to the townsite.

Road and visiting notes

  • The routes above end on Gantts Lane at the mapped townsite, beside the working quarry, with nothing of the town to see.
  • The Imerys Gantt's Quarry Observation Point is off Sylacauga-Fayetteville Highway, about a third of a mile west of US 280: look for the gravel road on the south side, across from Thompson Lane. The map buttons go there. Beyond the overlook the quarry is a working mine.
  • The old post office and its marker are at North Broadway Avenue and West 8th Street in Sylacauga, behind the B.B. Comer Museum.

Photos

Gantts Quarry in photos

Questions

Common questions

Is Gantts Quarry a ghost town?

Yes, in the fullest sense. The census has found no residents since 2000, the company houses came down in the late 1960s, and the town was dissolved on December 31, 2001.

Is there anything to see?

Not of the town at its site, as far as we could find. Its post office building survives, moved to Sylacauga in 2004; it stands behind the B.B. Comer Museum with a state historical marker, photographed in March 2026. You can also look into the quarry from the Imerys overlook.

Can you visit the quarry?

Only the Imerys Gantt's Quarry Observation Point, an overlook about a mile northeast of the townsite off Sylacauga-Fayetteville Highway. Its sign dates it to 2012 and names the City of Sylacauga as a partner, and a video posted in July 2024 shows it open. The quarry itself is a working mine.

Nearby

Ghost towns and sites near Gantts Quarry

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

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Gantts Quarry, Alabama", read October 28, 2026: the ghost town label, the 1830 find, the Washington Monument block, the 1910 incorporation, the company houses torn down in the late 1960s, the post office and library building moved behind the B.B. Comer Museum and listed in 2024, the census counts 1920 to 2020, the 1998 estimate of seven, disincorporation effective December 31, 2001, annexation into Sylacauga, the coordinates.
  2. Wikipedia, "List of ghost towns in Alabama", read October 28, 2026: Gantts Quarry classed as abandoned, a former mining town.
  3. "Gantts Quarry Post Office" marker, City of Sylacauga and Alabama Historical Commission, erected 2026, transcribed on the Historical Marker Database with photos of March 11, 2026: the post office from 1905, the 1932 tornado, service ending in 1972, the 2004 move to save it from demolition, the last remnant of a vanished town, the location at North Broadway Avenue and West 8th Street.
  4. Michael Kief Law, "Marble Industry," Encyclopedia of Alabama, updated February 27, 2025: Gantt's 1814 trip and 1834 purchase, the Alabama Marble Company in 1908 on the old Gantt quarry, Gantt's Quarry as a town that grew around the workings, the 1967 end of structural operations, the turn to calcium carbonate.
  5. Mining History Association, Sylacauga marble tour, June 26, 2022: the Alabama Marble Company formed by New York investors in 1906.
  6. Eddie's Great Adventures & Video's, "Imery's - Gantt's Quarry 2024", YouTube, posted July 7, 2024: the video on this page; the observation point, its May 22, 2012 dedication sign and its elevation figures.
  7. THINGS GOING ON IN SYLACAUGA FB PAGE, "Randy Clark, gives a tour of Gantt's Quarry Observation Site.", YouTube, posted April 16, 2023: a tour group at the lookout, the town that stood beyond the trees, and that none of it is there anymore.
  8. OpenStreetMap and Wikivoyage, "Sylacauga", both read October 28, 2026: the location of the observation point off Sylacauga-Fayetteville Highway, on a gravel road across from Thompson Lane.
  9. Alabama Humanities Alliance, "Gantt's Quarry: Memories of a Company Town/Community", read October 28, 2026: a company town of the Alabama Marble Company from the early 1900s into the 1960s.
  10. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits