Cahaba Foundation Inc

Old Cahawba, at the confluence of the Cahaba and Alabama Rivers west of Selma, is one of the most important historically and biologically significant places in Alabama. Old Cahawba is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Over 30 years ago, the Alabama Historical Commission established the park as a state historic site. State funding, however, has never been sufficient to acquire all the land at the site and to organize and interpret it fully for public access.  To meet this challenge, in 2008 a group of community-minded citizens established The Cahaba Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, to generate funding from private sources.

Cahawba was once Alabama’s state capital and then a thriving antebellum river town. It became a ghost town after the Civil War, and today is an important archaeological site and place of picturesque ruins.

Within the ghost town, archaeology is revealing stories, and preservationists are attempting to restore the remaining structures and cemeteries.  St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, built in 1854 and moved away when the town died, has been returned to the park at Old Cahawba and is being restored.  Aquatic wildlife is again thriving in the rivers. Along the entry road to the park, Alabama’s Forever Wild Program, with the help of the Nature Conservancy of Alabama, is restoring Alabama’s largest remnant of tall grass prairie.  As a gateway to the Black Belt Nature and Heritage Tourism Trail and the terminus of the Cahaba River Canoe Trail, Old Cahawba is emerging as an important tourist destination.  Cahaba’s story is one of dreams, growth, destruction, demise, renewal, and restoration – a valuable history lesson for generations to come.

Old Cahawba suffers from unintended neglect.  Over 30 years ago, the Alabama Historical Commission established the park as a state historic site, but it then owned only the rights of way over the former streets. In the 1980’s, the Commission began purchasing land, but state funding has never been sufficient to acquire all the land in the site and develop it fully for public use.  Today, the Commission owns only 65 percent of the property, and Old Cahawba remains under-maintained and the archaeological sites unprotected.

Daniel J. Meador, President of The Cahaba Foundation, states, "Old Cahawba was the birthplace of the state government and a flourishing antebellum center. Today it is deserted and ghostly, but rich in archaeological remains. Surrounded by two rivers, it is also rich in flora and fauna and unique biodiversity … This site should be preserved for posterity, and we invite everyone to join us in this effort."

Because modern development has thus far bypassed Cahaba, the entire footprint of this town, and consequently the stories of all the lives that were lived there, still exists frozen in time, undisturbed beneath the sod, waiting to be uncovered.  This unique situation has made the park at Old Cahawba a significant archaeological site, important to the study of early Alabama history through the era of the Civil War.  

Preservation of Cahaba is important … for our state, for ourselves, and for the generations to come.

Supporting our Southern History at Old Cahawba is a wise investment. We in this generation owe to posterity a duty to preserve and protect one of the most historic spots in Alabama. Please join us in this effort.