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Erie

Ghost town · Hale County, Alabama

Ponders quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1971, 1:24,000)
Ponders quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1971, 1:24,000) · U.S. Geological Survey, Historical Topographic Map Collection · Public domain

Erie is a ghost town in Hale County, Alabama, recorded as human settlement in United States of America. It is one of 2 former communities in Hale County on the federal names register. That ranks the county 31st among the 53 Alabama counties with a vanished settlement on record.

The U.S. Geological Survey lists Erie as a historical populated place on the Ponders 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 32.7154° N, 85.8041° W.

Key facts

USGS quadranglePonders
Elevation552 ft
Nearest living townDadeville, AL
Distance to it7.8 miles
GNIS feature ID138975
Coordinates32.71541, -85.80412

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.

Erie today, aerial view
Ponders quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1971, 1:24,000)

Left: Ponders quadrangle, USGS topographic map (1971, 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

Erie is no longer a community in its own right. The nearest living town is Dadeville, AL (population 3,034), about 7.8 miles away in a straight line, and the site sits at roughly 552 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 Erie?

Erie is in Hale County, Alabama, at 32.7154, -85.8041.

How many ghost towns are in Hale County?

Hale County, Alabama has 2 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 2026-11-05.