Coosada, AL

Coosada is an Elmore County town along the Alabama River, with State Highway 14 through town and Interstate 65 about ten miles southwest. Before American settlement, a Koasati village occupied this area; the town's name is an Americanized form of that Muskogean word. William Wyatt Bibb, Alabama's first governor, later bought land at the old village site and divided it into lots. By 1818 Coosawda had a school and sawmill, a post office followed in 1821, and a railroad arrived in 1872. The spelling changed in 1889 after a station sign left the w out of the name.

ATTRChris Pruitt / CC BY-SA 3.0

Coosada incorporated in 1975, but its local calendar still carries the older layers. Bibb's grave is in the family cemetery just outside town, The Elms is a Greek Revival house built in 1836, and Town Hall holds artifacts connected to Native life and early settlers. The Coosada Heritage Festival comes on the third Saturday in September with crafts, cars, music, and children's activities; a community center and volunteer fire department handle more ordinary gathering and response.