What do YOU think of 'The Mystery Stones of Pine Orchard'?

“I had seen only one other place that had that type of stones, and that was a restored temple in Mexico City in 1955. This leads me to believe that it is something of great historic value.” — "Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers" author, George Singleton (Oct. 31, 1991)

At least 5,000 years before Christ walked the earth, Native Americans lived in Monroe County, Ala. Little is left of these ancient Indians except for a few artifacts — artifacts like the 12 “mystery stones” of Pine Orchard.

Dubbed “mystery stones” by state archivists, who examined the prehistoric stones after their discovery in the 1960s, these stone disks have left experts scratching their heads for years.

The late Milford Champion and the late Fred D. McClammy, both of Pine Orchard, a community in northeast Monroe County, reported the existence of the stones after their discovery in the 1960s. When they found the stones, the relics were partially sunk in the ground. Some of the stones were covered by undergrowth, and some rested in a stream.

Worried that vandals might destroy the disks, Champion and McClammy decided that it was best to move the stones. They brought a small bulldozer to the site and pushed the stones onto a trailer and hauled the relics onto their property.

According to Monroeville’s George Singleton, who devoted an entire chapter to the “mystery stones” in his book, “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” the size and weight of the stones vary. The largest stone is 40 inches in diameter and weighs about 1,500 pounds. The smallest of the stones measures 18 inches across and weighs about 30 pounds. In all of the stones but one, there is a hole, but not necessarily in the exact center.

According to a report published in the Oct. 31, 1991, edition of The Monroe Journal newspaper, Milford Champion found the stones lined up from east to west and from largest to smallest, spaced about 40 feet apart.

Champion felt that natives rolled the stones to the location and then chiseled the stones into disks. Champion said that shavings from the stones, which are composed of compressed limestone and shell, were still visible on the ground nearby.

When discovered, the disks rested in a basin hidden in thick underbrush about a mile northwest of Pine Orchard, about 1-1/2 miles from Lone Star Church. All of the stones were intact, and some showed fossilized seashells and pebbles, which had been exposed by years of washing from a stream that had been rerouted there.

One of the current owners of the stones, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the stones are too fragile to have been used as grinding wheels or for rolling. Besides, no two of the stones are the same size, which doesn’t gel with any theories about grinding or mill wheels.

The stones’ current owner also said that a topographical map of the stones’ original location shows that there is a large mound and four smaller mounds at the site, possibly indicating the presence of an Indian burial ground.

He also stated that out of all the archaeologists who have examined the stones over the years, and there have been many, most felt that the stones were used for ceremonial purposes.

Some people who have seen the "mystery stones" of Pine Orchard say that they resemble stone anchors from ancient shipwrecks.

On the surface, the idea may seem ridiculous, given the location of the stones at Pine Orchard, but a deeper look into other discoveries makes the theory not as farfetched as it may sound.

Similar stones, discovered off the coast of Palos Verdes, Calif., prompted researchers to announce that they had discovered anchors from a 3,000-year-old Chinese shipwreck. These rocks were drilled with holes approximately two to four inches in diameter, much like the stones of Pine Orchard.

Geologists later examined these “anchors” and thought that they might be of local origin, possibly used during the latter half of the 19th century, while others suggest that the stones were used by the Portuguese during the same period to anchor whales during butchering.

Similar stone anchors have also been found in the ancient harbors at Galilee. These anchors, each a large piece of basalt with a hole through the center, were thrown into the sea to hold a boat in position while fishermen worked.

If the “mystery stones” are ancient ship anchors, how would they have made their way to Pine Orchard?

Here’s one theory: Increasing evidence shows that European explorers came to America long before the time of Christopher Columbus. In 1957, a small boy found a coin in a field near Phenix City, Ala., not far from the banks of the Chattahoochee River. The coin originated from Syracuse, on the island of Sicily, and dated from 490 B.C. Roman coins were also discovered in Texas at the bottom of an Indian mound at Round Rock. The mound is dated at approximately 800 A.D. In 1886, the remains of a shipwreck were found in Galveston Bay, Texas. Its construction was typically Roman.

Assuming that ancient seafarers managed to make their way into the Gulf of Mexico and up the Alabama River, then it’s not impossible to imagine that one of their ships may have made it to our area and could have become stranded. As the crow files, it’s only 20 miles from the Alabama River to Pine Orchard. If the Indians were so inclined, it’s not impossible to imagine them moving 12 stones over that distance, even with the most primitive of tools.

Another explanation for the “mystery stones” lies with the practices of native cultures in the Pacific Islands, where natives used stones as money, called “Rai.” Rai were limestone disks, similar to those in Pine Orchard, and natives put logs through the hole in each disk, so they could carry them from one place to another. Islanders would tow these disks from island to island behind their canoes, which was often dangerous. More than a few times, everyone in the canoe drowned trying to transport their Rai from island to island.

The Pine Orchard mystery stones also eerily resemble the megaliths at Cornwall, England. A megalith is a huge stone, especially one used in Neolithic monuments or in the construction work of ancient peoples. The megaliths at Cornwall were considered to be healing stones and were used for astronomical observations.

Scottish engineer Alexander Thom, a professor at Oxford University until his retirement in 1961, published two books — “Megalithic Sites in Britain” and “Megalithic Lunar Observatories” — in which he said that he found alignments between individual megaliths and the cycles of the sun, moon and stars. He had also discovered many pairs of structures, sometimes miles apart, that could be lined up like the front and rear sights of a rifle to make important astrological observations.

The practice of “sun watching” also played an important role in the lives of many ancient American cultures. It played a central role in the agricultural and ceremonial life of the Pueblo Indians of the American Southwest.

The seasonal cycle of the sun sets the calendar for rituals and for specific crop plantings — essential activities for survival. Often, a religious officer or priest would watch the horizon each day from a special spot and carefully observe sunrise or sunset relative to features at the horizon. He would know from experience what horizon points marked the summer and winter solstice and the times to plant crops.

George Singleton examined the “mystery stones” of Pine Orchard in their original location shortly before they were moved in the late 1960s.

Singleton told The Journal in a 1991 interview that the linear direction of the stones indicates that they served as some type of calendar or marked the movement of the moon and seasons.

Is this what the Indians at Pine Orchard were doing? Were the stones some sort of ancient calendar? Is it significant that there were 12 stones, a stone for each month of the year? Is it important that the stones were arranged from east to west, the same general path that the sun and moon travel across the sky?

In the end, it appears that the puzzle of the “mystery stones” may go unsolved. Is it possible that Pine Orchard’s “mystery stones” will never entirely yield to human inquiry, that questions about their origins and purposes are destined to remain unanswered? Who can be certain? What is certain is that these “mystery stones” will continue to capture our imaginations for as long as we have an interest in them.

(I wrote the above article in 2005, and it was originally printed in the Jan. 13, 2005 edition of The Monroe Journal newspaper. It was later reprinted in Strange Alabama magazine.)