Cottonwood, AL

Cottonwood is a Houston County town in Alabama’s Wiregrass, close to the Florida line and on the route between Dothan and the state border. The name came from a lone cottonwood tree that stood here when the town took shape in the early 1840s. W. S. Wood’s general store, opened in 1844, drew more settlement, and a post office followed around 1873. Cottonwood incorporated in 1901, built its first school in the early twentieth century, and later became known for the strange turns of its local history: a 1927 earthquake led to a brief, mistaken oil boom, while Sealy’s Springs brought visitors to a mineral-water resort until fire ended it in 2001.

Alabama State Route 53 cuts through the center, leading north to Dothan and southeast toward Florida. That road keeps Cottonwood connected to the larger Wiregrass trade area, while Houston County schools and a local high school give the town its civic spine. The January 9, 2024 EF2 tornado added a painful recent chapter, damaging much of the community and prompting county-led cleanup. The 2020 census counted 1,048 residents. Cottonwood’s story holds several eras together: a tree on the prairie, a store and post office, a short-lived resort, and a town rebuilding after a hard storm.