George Singleton tells of ancient bear skull found 18 feet below ground on Ridge Road in Monroe County

Example of ancient bear skull in museum display.

(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere in Time.” The column below, which was titled “Soil gives up another relic” was originally published in the July 8, 1976 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

As I have stated many times before, the soil of Monroe County holds many relics of the past. This was proved once again when Gaines Bayles uncovered a large skull of one of the area’s earliest inhabitants: a bear.

While loading a dump truck from a clay pit on Ridge Road, Bayles found this huge skull embedded in clay about 18 feet below the surface of the ground.

There has been excessive digging in this area, and I’m sure that most of the remaining skeleton was destroyed by the earth-digging machinery. It was just by chance that this relic was discovered – and it was damaged when the loader’s teeth came in contact with it.

I will be the first to admit that I’m no authority on things such as this, but with what facts I had, and with the help of some good authoritative information, I found the huge bear to have weighed around 500 to 600 pounds at the time of its death.

Except for those that were broken out by the digger, all teeth are in good repair. This proves that the animal was not old, and suggests that it did not die from natural causes.

A large bear, regardless of the species – grizzly or brown or Russian or Asian – has many of the characteristics of the human being.

Since a bear’s well-being depends largely on its teeth, much can be learned from their condition. Study proves that the death rate of the large grizzly is focused around the bear’s teeth. When one’s teeth were out, food becomes harder and harder to come by.

In the Western states where the grizzly is still to be found, when a bear becomes a killer usually a mouth wound with broken teeth is the cause. When the killer is slain, almost always there is damage to the teeth.

It would be interesting to know the circumstances surrounding this huge skull, and the cause of the large bear’s death.

Was he killed by man because he had gone on the rampage and become a killer himself? Or was he the victim of a larger, younger bear – a victim who fought to the death to defend his domain?

The red clay bank on Ridge Road was the secret’s keeper. Now it has gone to meet the needs of man, to be lost forever.

(Singleton, the author of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of 79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime resident of Monroeville, he was born to Vincent William Singleton and Frances Cornelia Faile Singleton, during a late-night thunderstorm, on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School in 1946, served as a U.S. Marine paratrooper in the Korean War, worked as a riverboat deckhand, lived for a time among Apache Indians, moved to Monroe County on June 28, 1964 and served as the administrator of the Monroeville National Guard unit from June 28, 1964 to Dec. 14, 1987. He was promoted from the enlisted ranks to warrant officer in May 1972. For years, Singleton’s columns, titled “Monroe County history – Did you know?” and “Somewhere in Time” appeared in The Monroe Journal, and he wrote a lengthy series of articles about Monroe County that appeared in Alabama Life magazine. It’s believed that his first column appeared in the March 25, 1971 edition of The Monroe Journal. He is buried in Pineville Cemetery in Monroeville. The column above and all of Singleton’s other columns are available to the public through the microfilm records at the Monroe County Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns are presented here each week for research and scholarship purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work and memory alive.)