Canoe is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in Escambia County,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

, United States. Originally called ''Canoe Station'', the settlement was a stop along the Mobile and Great Northern Railroad.

Civil War

During the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

Confederate A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

forces operated out of the area and on March 27-March 28, 1865 10,000 Union soldiers camped in Canoe during the Canoe Rendezvous. During this 24-hour period several Union commanders brought together their forces which had been operating in the area and then moved on towards

Blakely, Alabama Blakeley is a ghost town in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. During the height of its existence, Blakeley was a thriving town which flourished as a competitor to its western neighbor, Mobile. Blakeley was the county seat for Baldwin Co ...

. Gen. C.C. Andrews mentions this period in his book, ''History of the Campaign of Mobile''.

Prosperity and decline

The settlement grew into a town and prospered from the 1870s-1950s. New settlers came during the 1880s-early 1900s in search of cheap, cut over timberland on which to build homes and farms. The town was the site of 3 schools, a mineral spring, and a hotel, among other businesses. By the 1960s, Canoe was in an economic decline as store keepers aged, closed up shop, and as younger people moved from the town. The post office and public schools closed by the 1970s.

Present day

Today, Canoe has a population of several hundred with a half dozen shops and businesses, Escambia Academy, and a water system. The local public school district is

Escambia County School District Escambia County Public Schools (ECPS), officially the Escambia County School District (ECSD), is the organization responsible for the administration of public schools in all of Escambia County, Florida, in the United States. The district current ...

as it includes all portions of Escambia County outside of Brewton.
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References

{{Short description, Unincorporated community in Alabama, United States Unincorporated communities in Alabama Unincorporated communities in Escambia County, Alabama