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Gatesville

Ghost town · Colbert County, Alabama

Barton quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1925, 1:62,500)
Barton quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1925, 1:62,500) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Gatesville is a ghost town in Colbert County, Alabama. It is one of 27 former communities in Colbert County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 5th among the 53 Alabama counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Gatesville as a historical populated place on the Pride topographic quadrangle: the name is no longer in official use for a community, whether the settlement was abandoned, absorbed into a neighbouring town or renamed. The recorded location is 34.7298° N, 87.8459° W.

Key facts

USGS quadranglePride
Elevation423 ft
Nearest living townCherokee, AL
Distance to it7.1 miles
GNIS feature ID132893
Coordinates34.72981, -87.84587

Open the location on a map

Then and now

Drag the slider: the old USGS map on the left, the same ground from the air today on the right. Both cover the same 1.9-mile square centred on the recorded location.

Gatesville today, aerial view
Barton quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1925, 1:62,500)

Left: Barton quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1925, 1:62,500), U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection. Right: The same ground today: NAIP aerial imagery, USDA Farm Service Agency, National Agriculture Imagery Program (via USGS). Both public domain.

What's there now

Gatesville is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Cherokee, AL (population 1,059), about 7.1 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 423 feet above sea level. The aerial view above shows what covers the ground today. Much of the land around former townsites is private; check access before you visit.

Nearby places

Questions

Where is Gatesville?

Gatesville is in Colbert County, Alabama, at 34.7298, -87.8459.

How many ghost towns are in Colbert County?

Colbert County, Alabama has 27 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.

Sources and licences

Facts marked "approximately" carry an uncertain date in the source. Text on this page is generated from the sources above; no encyclopedia prose is copied. Last updated 2026-11-05.