Old Cahawba to appear on Discovery show

Published 7:06 am Saturday, April 13, 2024

Old Cahawba is being featured on the Discovery Channel show, focusing about abandoned sites in America this weekend.

The show “Mysteries of the Abandoned: Hidden America” will be featuring the historic site in Dallas County on the episode titled “The Secrets and Troubles of Old Cahawba.”

According to the Discovery Channel’s description of the episode, “A revolutionary leader visits Alabama’s first capital and leaves it bankrupt.”

Email newsletter signup

According to assistant site director Jonathan Matthews, the film crew visited during the summer of 2023 and conducted interviews with him and former site director Linda Derry.

“They came around June or July last year and filmed on site,” Matthews said. “We really don’t have any idea what the episode is about, but based on the show’s description, it is probably going to be about (Gen. Marquis de) Lafayette.”

According to Old Cahawba’s history, Lafayette, then age 67, arrived April 5, 1825, at the town by steamboat.

“He toured the United States from July 1824 – September 1825 and toured Alabama March 31 – April 8. There were grand parties and receptions and after it was all over, the state and the town collectively spent $15,000 on his visit, which was more than was spent on the first statehouse,” according to a 2020 post on the site’s Facebook page.

“Cahawba was once Alabama’s state capital (1819-1826) and a thriving antebellum river town. It became a ghost town shortly after the Civil War. Today it is an important archaeological site and a place of picturesque ruins,” the website states.

Old Cahawba lies where the Alabama and Cahaba rivers merge.

The show was set to air at 9 p.m. Friday, but will be available  viademand on the Discovery Channel’s streaming platforms.