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Coato Bend

Ghost town · Etowah County, Alabama

Ballplay quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1967, 1:24,000)
Ballplay quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1967, 1:24,000) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Coato Bend is a ghost town in Etowah County, Alabama. It is one of 31 former communities in Etowah County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 3rd among the 53 Alabama counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Coato Bend as a historical populated place on the Ballplay topographic quadrangle: the name is no longer in official use for a community, whether the settlement was abandoned, absorbed into a neighbouring town or renamed. The recorded location is 34.0529° N, 85.8458° W.

Key facts

USGS quadrangleBallplay
Elevation565 ft
Nearest living townCoats Bend, AL
Distance to it2.2 miles
GNIS feature ID140501
Coordinates34.05288, -85.84580

Open the location on a map

Then and now

Drag the slider: the old USGS map on the left, the same ground from the air today on the right. Both cover the same 1.9-mile square centred on the recorded location.

Coato Bend today, aerial view
Ballplay quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1967, 1:24,000)

Left: Ballplay quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1967, 1:24,000), U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection. Right: The same ground today: NAIP aerial imagery, USDA Farm Service Agency, National Agriculture Imagery Program (via USGS). Both public domain.

What's there now

Coato Bend is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Coats Bend, AL (population 1,429), about 2.2 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 565 feet above sea level. The aerial view above shows what covers the ground today. Much of the land around former townsites is private; check access before you visit.

Nearby places

Questions

Where is Coato Bend?

Coato Bend is in Etowah County, Alabama, at 34.0529, -85.8458.

How many ghost towns are in Etowah County?

Etowah County, Alabama has 31 ghost towns on record at Wayfarrow.

Sources and licences

Facts marked "approximately" carry an uncertain date in the source. Text on this page is generated from the sources above; no encyclopedia prose is copied. Last updated 2026-11-06.