Old Cahawba may be taken for granted by many folks who live around here.

But for others, it is a restful place. It is a place to watch nature. It is part of our heritage.

And it is one of America’s “coolest ghost towns.”

In its online February edition, Travel and Leisure Magazine so dubbed the site. Old Cahawba came in No. 9 on the list.

The site, which once was a meeting place for freed slaves and a prison ground for Union soldiers during the Civil War, also was Alabama’s capital city from 1820 until 1826.

Today, little remains of the original structures that once lined bustling streets. It is that absence of presence that makes Cahawba mysterious and unique.

Although little remains of the original, scores of people make the sojourn to the region to return in time — in their imaginations — when government came from the capital near where the Cahaba and Alabama rivers merge.

We are fortunate to live in this area so rich with history.

We are fortunate there is a board of directors and archaeologists who care enough to keep Old Cahawba thriving.

If you haven’t taken the journey just outside Selma to the Old Cahawba Archaeological Park, grab some family and spend a few minutes there.

And, as the folk singer Joan Baez sang, allow the winds of the old days to blow through your hair.