Gordo, AL

Gordo is a Pickens County town on U.S. 82, with a post office that has carried the name since 1847 and a municipal charter dating to 1900. The name likely points back to the 1847 Battle of Cerro Gordo in the Mexican-American War, an unusual bit of foreign geography sitting in west-central Alabama. The highway runs diagonally through town toward Tuscaloosa and the Mississippi line, while Gordo Elementary and Gordo High School serve the surrounding country. Gordo is one of Pickens County's larger municipalities and a practical Route 82 stop: old post office name, straight highway, schools, and a lot of Alabama distance around it.