The area's first settlers arrived in the 1830s and established the Crossroads community at the intersection of the Columbus-Tuscaloosa and Vienna-Fayette stagecoach roads, one mile northeast of Gordo's present location on Highway 82. The name Gordo is believed to have come from returning veterans of the famous battle of Cerro-Gordo that occurred during the Mexican War of 1846-1848. The Gordo community relocated to the area around the new Mobile and Ohio Railroad in 1898, was incorporated in 1900-01 with John J. Windham as first mayor, and by 1910 was the largest town in Pickens County with a population of 707. In 2008, under the leadership of Mayor Craig Patterson, Gordo encompassed an area of 3.19 square miles with a population of 1,677.