After Cahaba suffered another major flood in 1865, the state legislature moved the county seat northeast to Selma, which was better situated.

The state and associated citizens' groups are working to develop it as a full interpretive park[3] St. Luke's Episcopal Church was returned to Old Cahawba, and a fundraising campaign is underway for its restoration.

[3] Due to the future capital site being undeveloped, Alabama's constitutional convention took temporary accommodations in Huntsville until a statehouse could be built.

Governor William Wyatt Bibb reported in October 1819 that the town had been laid out and that lots would be auctioned to the highest bidders.

It also had a reputation for an unhealthy atmosphere, when people thought that miasma in the air caused such diseases as malaria, yellow fever, and cholera.

[9] Based on revenues from the cotton trade, the town recovered from losing the capital, and reestablished itself as a social and commercial center.

Centered in the fertile "Black Belt", Cahaba became a major distribution point for cotton shipped down the Alabama River to the Gulf port of Mobile.

About 64% were enslaved African Americans, reflecting the population of Dallas County, which was 75% black and composed largely of fieldworkers on cotton plantations.

It built a stockade around a large cotton warehouse on the riverbank along Arch Street in order to use it as a prison, known as Castle Morgan.

During the Reconstruction era, freedmen organizing in the Republican Party and trying to keep their "moderate political gains" met regularly at the vacant county courthouse.

[3][10] Although the area is no longer inhabited, the Alabama Historical Commission maintains the site as Old Cahawba Archeological Park.

[11] Visitors to this park can see many of the abandoned streets, cemeteries, and ruins of this former state capital and county seat.

It is conducting fundraising to support the restoration of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, which was relocated to Old Cahawba in the early 21st century.