Bluffton, Alabama, was a late 19th-century mining town in Cherokee County that experienced a rapid rise and decline. Below is detailed information about the town:
County: Cherokee County
Zip Code: Not available
Latitude / Longitude: 34.00694° N, 85.44000° W
Elevation: 850 feet (260 meters)
Time Zone: Central Time Zone (UTC-6; UTC-5 during Daylight Saving Time)
Established: 1888
Disestablished: 1934
Comments: Bluffton is an unincorporated community in Cherokee County, Alabama Ghost Townabama, United States. Bluffton was founded as a mining community in 1888. In 1890, Bluffton was home to approximately 8,000 residents. The Bluffton Land, Ore, and Furnace Company operated an iron mine in the area and was also responsible for building the Signal Hotel, which at one point hosted Rudyard Kipling.
The Signal Hotel was the first structure in Cherokee County with electric lights. Bluffton had one newspaper, the Bluffton Mascot, and was home to a Methodist Episcopal church and Salem Baptist Church, which is still in use today. Bluffton was also the planned site of a college, The University of the Southland. A groundbreaking took place on April 24, 1889, but the college was never built. Besides the iron mines, Bluffton was home to a waterworks system, school, post office, and Cherokee County’s first electrical generating plant.
Even so, Bluffton’s ore fields did not meet the expectations of their investors and higher-grade iron was available closer to Birmingham. Commercial businesses began to fail, and Bluffton soon came to be considered a ghost town.
Remains: The Signal Hotel was torn down in 1950, and the materials were used to construct the Pleasant Gap Tabernacle. A storm in the 1940s had destroyed most of Bluffton.
Current Status: Barren; classified as a ghost town
Remarks: Bluffton’s brief prosperity was tied to the mining industry, and natural disasters and economic downturns hastened its decline.
