Arcola, Alabama

{{Use American English|date=September 2024}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2023}}

{{Infobox settlement

|official_name = Arcola, Alabama

|settlement_type = Ghost town

|image_skyline = Hatch Plantation at Arcola 001.JPG

|imagesize =

|image_caption = Portion of the settlement site, the Hatch Plantation

|image_seal =

|image_map =

|pushpin_map = Alabama#USA

|pushpin_label = Arcola

|pushpin_label_position =

|pushpin_map_caption =

|pushpin_mapsize = 200

|coor_pinpoint =

|coordinates = {{coord|32.56617|-87.78183|display=inline}}

|subdivision_type = Country

|subdivision_type1 = State

|subdivision_type2 = County

|subdivision_name = United States

|subdivision_name1 = Alabama

|subdivision_name2 = Marengo

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|elevation_ft = 128

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|timezone = Central (CST)

|utc_offset = -6

|timezone_DST = CDT

|utc_offset_DST = -5

|postal_code_type = ZIP code

|postal_code = 36742

|area_code = 334

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Arcola is a ghost town on the Black Warrior River in what is now Hale County, formerly Marengo County, Alabama.{{Gnis|155998|Arcola}} Named to honor the French victory during the Battle of Arcola, it was established in the early 1820s by former French Bonapartists as part of their Vine and Olive Colony, after they were forced to abandon their first town at Demopolis and many found Aigleville unsuitable.{{cite book |title=Dead Towns of Alabama |last=Harris |first=W. Stuart |year=1977 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |page=60 |isbn=0-8173-1125-4 }} The first settler at the site was Frederic Ravesies, who established himself at what later became the Hatch Plantation.{{cite book |title=Days of Exile: The Story of the Vine and Olive Colony in Alabama |last=Smith |first=Winston |year=1967 |publisher=W. B. Drake and Son |location=Tuscaloosa, Alabama |pages=76–77 }} Although never more than a village, Arcola became the largest settlement in the colony. Beginning in the 1830s American settlers moved into the area and purchased most of the former French land grants, primarily using Arcola as a river landing. By the 1850s the French settlement had disappeared, replaced by a community of adjoining plantations.