Abandoned Towns
A grassy track running straight between pines and hardwoods on an overcast summer day, in woods the photographer labels as the Cotton Gin Port site

River and lake town

Cotton Gin Port

A French fort, a federal cotton gin for the Chickasaw, a river port at the head of navigation on the Tombigbee. When the railroad founded Amory in 1887, the people rolled their houses to the new town. Ruins and a cemetery remain in the bottomland woods.

33°58′15″N 88°32′35″W · ≈210 ft

Photo: Leeking337, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ruins · 2022 report

The state's historical marker stands at US 278 and Cotton Gin Road and points south one mile to the site. The newest dated report, an Alabama Pioneers history article of September 2022, says only the ruins of the old town remain; Wikipedia says they lie between the Tenn-Tom Waterway and the Tombigbee River. We found no source on who owns the land or whether visitors may walk in, and the National Register listing keeps the site's address restricted. Don't dig or collect: it is a listed archaeological site.

Overview

The town Amory replaced

Cotton Gin Port sat on the east bank of the Tombigbee River west of present-day Amory, where Indian trails had long crossed the river. Wikipedia's article on Amory puts it about 1.5 miles from the city; the city's own history says three miles west. The French built a small fort here in 1736. Around 1801 the U.S. government built a cotton gin for the Chickasaw as part of its "plan of civilization." The gin is said to have burned within a year, but a trading post grew up and the name stuck.

In 1811 and 1812 Gaines Trace was built from the Tennessee River to Cotton Gin Port, then the head of keelboat navigation. After the Chickasaw ceded the land in 1816, settlers arrived. From 1818 to December 1819 the town was the first seat of Marion County in the Alabama Territory, and an 1821 survey of the state line put it in Mississippi. Steamboats reached it in 1824 and called each winter in high water, loading cotton for Mobile.

Floods, the removal of the Chickasaw in 1837, the Civil War and newer towns at Columbus and Aberdeen wore the place down. The end came in 1887, when the Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham Railroad founded Amory. The city's history says the remaining people moved there, rolling their houses on logs or taking them apart and rebuilding them. Today, Wikipedia says, only ruins and an old cemetery are left, between the river and the Tenn-Tom Waterway.

Timeline

Fort, gin, port, empty bottomland

Overgrown woodland the photographer labels as the Cotton Gin Port site, July 2012; the exact camera location isn't recorded
Overgrown woodland the photographer labels as the Cotton Gin Port site, July 2012; the exact camera location isn't recorded · Photo: Leeking337, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
  1. The oldest artifacts at the site date from about this time, by the Alabama Pioneers account. Ancestors of the Chickasaw later build a mound here.
  2. The French build a small fort here as a staging point for Bienville's failed attack on the Chickasaw at Ackia. Vaudreuil's expedition uses the site in 1752.
  3. The U.S. government builds a cotton gin for the Chickasaw. Rufus Ward says it stood on the west bank and burned within a year; the name stuck.
  4. Gaines Trace, surveyed by Capt. Edmund Pendleton Gaines, is built from near Muscle Shoals to Cotton Gin Port, then the head of keelboat navigation on the Tombigbee.
  5. After the Chickasaw cession of 1816, settlers arrive. In 1820 the town counts 46 white residents and three enslaved people, by Ward's figures.
  6. Cotton Gin Port is the first seat of Marion County, in the Alabama Territory, until December 1819. A survey in 1821 puts it in Mississippi, and Monroe County forms the same year.
  7. The steamboat Cotton Plant reaches the town and carries 70 bales of cotton back to Mobile. Boats call regularly in the high water of winter.
  8. Chickasaw removal ends the town's Indian trade.
  9. A major flood.
  10. The Kansas City, Memphis & Birmingham Railroad founds Amory to the east, 1.5 miles away by Wikipedia's count or three miles by the city's history. The townspeople move there, rolling houses on logs or taking them apart and rebuilding them; the Christian church goes too.
  11. The Cotton Gin Port Site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
  12. The state puts up a historical marker at US 278 and Cotton Gin Road.

Legend and record

Who burned the gin?

The record agrees that the federal government built a gin for the Chickasaw around 1801 and that it didn't last. The stories of how it ended don't agree. Alabama Pioneers lists three competing explanations. Amory's city history tells it as a gift from President Washington that the Chickasaw disliked and burned, though they liked the gesture. Rufus Ward, a Columbus historian, writes only that it burned within a year. Treat the details as legend.

Legend also says Tecumseh spoke here in 1811 to seek Chickasaw support, and that the Chickasaw leader Levi Colbert lived on a nearby bluff by a council tree. Ward has Colbert running a ferry and building a house on the west bank in 1814; Alabama Pioneers says he ran a ferry there until 1803. We found no record that settles either story.

Site map

Where the town stood

None of the USGS sheets in the historic maps below label the town. The 1966 and 1992 sheets show the Tombigbee looping through wooded bottomland and marsh, with dashed tracks running in from the roads to the east. On the 1982 sheet a straight new channel, the Tenn-Tom Waterway, runs north to south east of the old river, the Old Indian Treaty Boundary crosses it, and Amory's street grid sits beyond.

Alabama Pioneers (2022), citing a 1971 newspaper report, describes the Mississippian-era mound as about fifty yards square and over eight feet high. Relics from the town are shown at the museum in Amory, by Wikipedia's account.

  • Ruins of buildings
  • Old cemetery
  • Mound, about fifty yards square
  • Historical marker at US 278 and Cotton Gin Road
USGS topographic map of the Cotton Gin Port area: the Tombigbee River winding north to south through marsh symbols, with Quitman Lane at left
USGS The National Map, topo. The Tombigbee winds through wooded bottomland with marsh symbols. Quitman Lane comes in from the west.
Aerial view of the area: a brown river curving down the left side through dense forest, with a field and track at upper right
Aerial imagery, same area. Forest fills the river bend. A field and a track open at upper right.

Historic maps

Cotton Gin Port on USGS maps, 1966–1992

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

USGS topographic map around Cotton Gin Port, 1966
Wren sheet, 1966, 1:24,000 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Amory is the closest town, 3.9 road miles away. From Birmingham, take I-22 west and US 278 into Mississippi. Both routes end on Cotton Gin Road, about 0.4 mile northeast of the mapped site. They were computed from OpenStreetMap and haven't been driven by us, and we couldn't confirm that the land beyond the road is open to the public.

USGS topographic map between Amory and Cotton Gin Port, with US 278 and the Tenn-Tom Waterway and the route drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From downtown Amory3.9 miabout 13 min
  1. From 2nd Avenue South, turn left on South Main Street (MS 25).0.4 mi
  2. Turn right on 6th Avenue South (US 278) and follow it west across the waterway.2.8 mi
  3. Turn left on Cotton Gin Road at the historical marker. The route ends about 0.4 mile northeast of the mapped site.0.7 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Road and safety notes

  • The routes stop on Cotton Gin Road about 0.4 mile from the mapped site. We have no source on what lies beyond or who owns it.
  • This is river bottomland. The 1966 USGS sheet marks marsh along the old channel, and Rufus Ward records floods in 1824 and 1847.
  • The site is on the National Register as an archaeological site with a restricted address. Leave artifacts where they lie.

Photos

Cotton Gin Port in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Cotton Gin Port?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Cotton Gin Port

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Mississippi index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. Wikipedia, "Cotton Gin Port, Mississippi", retrieved October 2026: the French expeditions, the 1801 gin, Gaines Trace, Marion County and the 1820–21 line, the railroad and Amory, the ruins between the waterway and the river, relics at the Amory museum, Levi Colbert, the National Register listing and coordinates.
  2. Wikipedia, "Amory, Mississippi", retrieved October 2026: the 1887 railroad town, the move from Cotton Gin Port about 1.5 miles away, "the ruins of buildings and an old cemetery."
  3. City of Amory, "History", read October 2026 in the browser (compiled 1998): Amory's founding in 1887, Cotton Gin Port three miles west, the gin story, houses rolled on logs or rebuilt, the Christian church moved.
  4. Rufus Ward, "Ask Rufus: The story a picture tells," The Dispatch, March 6, 2021: the 1736 fort, the 1801 gin and its burning, Gaines Trace, Colbert's ferry, the 1820 population, Marion County, the 1821 survey, the Cotton Plant, floods, removal and decline.
  5. Donna R. Causey, Alabama Pioneers, September 2022: the artifacts from about 600 B.C., the mound, the gin stories, the Tecumseh legend, early stores, "only the ruins of the old town remain."
  6. Historical Marker Database, "Cotton Gin Port", read October 2026: the 1997 state marker's text and location at US 278 and Cotton Gin Road.
  7. National Park Service, NPGallery, "Cotton Gin Port Site": listing of October 18, 1972, archaeological site, address restricted.
  8. USGS Wren sheets, 1966 and 1992, and West Point sheet, 1982 (in the historic maps below): the river, the roads, the Tenn-Tom Waterway and the treaty boundary.
  9. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

Record5 of 10
  • Coordinates
  • Founding history
  • Abandonment, 1887
  • National Register listing
  • Historic maps, 1966–1992
  • Land ownership
  • Access
  • Cemetery location
  • Peak population
  • Field report since 2012
Missing items are what we'll ask readers and local sources to fill.