Earth Team Volunteers Clear Prehistoric Rock Formation On Earth Day

Earlier last year, members of the Chattahoochee Valley Historical Society (CVHS) were researching the history of land ownership in Chambers County from 1836 to the present. As part of their research, they interviewed the few remaining descendents of pioneer families in this locality. Upon discovering that an unusual rock alignment was in the area, they tried to determine if any quarrying had taken place, or if there was any association of the site with Native Americans.

The research produced documentation and an oral history describing the stones as American Indian by local families a century ago.  No knowledge of quarrying was discovered on this land.

In April of 2007, members of the CVHS told me about the rock wall and asked for assistance in identifying and mapping the rock formation. With permission of the landowner, we visited the site and I determined it was not "just" farmer’s rock piles or a farm terrace but very likely had unknown prehistoric origins--and could be considered significant. The landowner soon contacted me and asked for my assistance in mapping the rock wall; he also told me about at least a dozen rock piles on the other side of the creek that he believed might be of some importance.

With assistance from several volunteers from the CVHS (and now officially NRCS Earth Team Volunteers), we spent Earth Day 2008 (April 22) in the field trying to clear as much leaf litter from the wall as possible with gas-powered blowers, rakes, and even a chainsaw. With removal of the leaf litter, the "wall" was very noticeable. It is approximately 400 feet long and averages 15 feet in width. Although it varies, the height of the wall is almost two feet. It is actually more like a raised walkway – but the surface is very uneven.

On April 24, we returned to the site for more leaf-blowing and some mapping activities.  Many thanks to Sprayberry and Associates Land Surveying Company (Auburn, AL) who volunteered their services for the morning. The landowner met us on-site and after lunch directed us to the other side of the creek – where we discovered at least two dozen rock piles adjacent to a large natural rock outcrop.

Eventually, we will investigate this portion of the site, but for now we are intermittently working on specifically mapping the environs of the rock wall and attempting to produce a general plan map of the site, with elevations of the local terrain and the wall itself.

At this time, we are treating the rock wall (and rock piles) as a Native American ceremonial site since the rock features do not conform to any of our ideas regarding farming or early historic settlements:

1.  There is very little topsoil in this small floodplain; farming would have been precarious, at best;

2.  If this was a terrace, it ignores drainage and erosional patterns by curving uphill to the northeast to just below the top of the hill and then curving back downhill to the southwest;

3.  If rocks were collected for later use as house foundations, rock-lined wells, or fencing, a lot of work went into creating a 400 foot long serpentine wall only 2 feet high on one side of the creek and several small rock piles on the other side of the creek – some only 10 feet apart.

I will keep you up-to-date on our progress!

I believe these rock features are prehistoric in nature.  I cannot logically attribute this much effort to make rock structures, piles, or very low but wide fences to any ethnic group of early settlers in Alabama!