Here's what George Singleton had to say about the 'Devil's Soup Bowl'

George Buster Singleton

If you visited this site on Monday you will have seen my “Life List Update” about my recent trip to the “Devil’s Soup Bowl” at Megargel, Ala. This strange locale is a place that I’ve heard about all my life, but had never had the chance to visit in person until last Sunday. Since Monday’s report about the trip, I’ve had more than a few people ask me for more details about the “Devil’s Soup Bowl” and the best thing that I can do for them is to direct them to the original source, the writings of the late George Singleton.

For a generation of Monroe Countians, Singleton was the gateway to all sorts of strange tales about our area, and I first heard about the “Devil’s Soup Bowl” through his weekly newspaper columns in The Monroe Journal newspaper. In 1991, Singleton published a compilation of his best newspaper columns in a great book called “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” which included a two-page chapter on the “Devil’s Soup Bowl.” Tonight, in an effort to supply you with even more details about that geographical oddity, I give you the complete text of that chapter, which can be found on pages 19 and 20 of the book. (If you don’t own a copy, I encourage you to buy one. You can get them at The Monroe Journal’s office at 49 Hines St. in Monroeville.) What follows is the complete text from the chapter about the “Devil’s Soup Bowl” in “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers”:

“THE DEVIL’S BOWL: What’s in a name? Could this really be what the name implies? Approximately 30 feet in diameter, this pool has been the topic of conversation by the people of the Goodway and Megargel communities for many, many years.

“Located about three miles off Highway 21, it is truly one of Monroe County’s strangest sights. As one examines the immediate area, one will notice that lilies and water grass grows in abundance about 10 feet around the water’s edge. The center of the pool then becomes dark, as though of great depth.

“The water is fresh, and one can see many minnows on the surface. The fact that life exists there is no mystery, but where does the fresh water come from? Where does it go? To have fresh water such as this, it must have a source. There must also be a stream or an overflow. Here, none exists.

“Although I have not had the opportunity to measure or try to find the bottom, the rumor that has circulated over the years say that there is none. Perhaps the depth is so great that there is none. Perhaps the depth is so great that the bottom has never been reached.

“One has but to look at the lay of the land to imagine that at some time in the past, when the world was young, a great meteor fell upon this area with such impact that it buried itself to a great depth; or could it be the core of a small volcano that has been sleeping through the centuries? What is the explanation of the mystery behind the Devil’s Soup Bowl? Who gave it its name?

“As I stood there near the pool’s edge and looked into the dark, deep water, I could feel that somewhere beneath the cool, clear surface, the secret has lain for a thousand years, and I felt reasonably sure it would lay for a thousand more."

In the end, how many of you have ever been to the “Devil’s Soup Bowl”? What did you think about it? What are you theories about its origins? Let us know in the comments section below.