HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) – Ghosts aren’t just spooks or specters for the Halloween season!

There are more than 50 ghost towns in Alabama. Most of them were deserted, neglected or submerged. News 19 has brought you a list of 5 ghost towns in North Alabama.

Bainbridge

Located in Colbert County, Bainbridge was established in 1819. While little is known about the town, historians do know that it was disestablished after being submerged by Wilson Lake.

Battelle

Once a busy mining town in Dekalb County, Battelle was disestablished in the early 20th century. It is said that after the quality and quantity of mineral deposits decreased, the Lookout Mountain Iron Company, headed by Col. John Gordon Battelle, placed the furnace on standby. The houses were slowly liquidated and in 1905 the furnace was dismantled and sent to India. His son Gordon inherited $4 million when he died, which the younger Battelle willed to the Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, Ohio.

Bellefonte

Roughly two miles from Hollywood in Jackson County, Bellefonte is home to the Bellefonte Nuclear Generating Station (BLN). The plant sits abandoned and unfinished. However, there was an attempt to finish the reactors between 2008 and 2021. TVA agreed to sell the reactors to Nuclear Development, but was unsuccessful.

Tennessee Valley Authority’s Bellefonte Nuclear Plant site Thursday, June 2, 2011, in Hollywood, Ala. The TVA board of directors is expected to decide in August 2011 whether to move forward with completion of Bellefonte Unit 1. Construction on the plant was started in 1974 but halted in 1988 in response to declining growth in power demand, according to TVA. (AP Photo/Eric Schultz)

Mountain Mills

Established in 1872, the Mountain Mills community was built to house a cotton mill to mass produce thread and cloth. During the Civil War, the Globe Factory in Florence was burned and rebuilt as the Cypress Mill, which closed in 1886. That same year the Mountain Mill Company began operations under the ownership of W. H. Cherry & Co. They produced yarn that was sold in Philidelphia, New York City and Providence. The community contained the mill, a church and a school. In 1893, the mill closed and the machinery was moved to the Cherry Cotton Mill.

Riverton

Located in Colbert County, Riverton was established in the 1840s. The Pickwick Dam was built in the 1930s and operated by TVA. To complete the construction of the dam and reservoir roughly 12,600 acres had to be cleared. So, in the late 1930s, the town of Riverton (and parts of Waterloo, Ala.) was flooded to clear the acreage. The only thing left of the town is the cemetery.

  • Plan for the entrance basin and lift lock for the Colbert Shoals Canal on the Tennessee River, designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (Courtesy, Alabama Department of Archives and History)
  • Entrance basin to the Colbert Shoals lift lock on the Tennessee River near Riverton, Alabama. (Courtesy, Alabama Department of Archives and History)
  • Construction of the Colbert Shoals lift lock on the Tennessee River near Riverton, Alabama. (Courtesy, Alabama Department of Archives and History)