Just how many Indian 'rock mounds' are there across the woodlands of Wilcox County, Alabama?

An example of a common Indian rock mound.

Going all the way back to an elementary school field trip to the Moundville Archaeological Park in Hale County, I’ve been fascinated by Indian mounds. The mounds at Moundville are classic examples of the large earthen mounds that were made by Indians across the Southeast. Most of these mounds are made out of packed clay and topsoil.

The other day, I was looking over a recent issue of “Stones & Bones,” the newsletter published by the Alabama Archaeological Society, and read a fascinating story by Jacksonville State University Professor Emeritus Harry Holstein. Holstein’s article was about “Memorial Stone Mounds,” a subject he devoted much of his long career to studying. His article included photos of some of the stone mounds he encountered over the years, and it was only then that I realized that I’d actually seen this type of thing in the woods before. I just didn’t know what I was looking at.

Holstein wrote that Indians would build these loose stone mounds for different reasons. They were either used as burial mounds or to memorialize a relative or an important tribal member. At other times, Indians built these mounds as a way to mark a border or to remember where a significant event occurred, for example, an important battle, a religious event or where someone important was killed or died.

Holstein noted that Indians in North America began constructing stone mounds in early prehistoric times, and stone structure sites can be found throughout Alabama and the Southeast. Often, these mounds would be built up over time as passing Indians would add stones to an already existing mound. In addition to stone mounds, Indians also built stone walls, stone prayer seats and other stone structures.

There is no doubt that Wilcox County is blessed with earthen Indian mounds. According to “Alabama Encyclopedia, Vol. I: Book of Facts,” there is a group of three Indian mounds four miles south of Furman and there’s another mound about three-fourths of a mile southwest of Webb’s Landing on the Alabama River. That book goes on to say that there is an “extensive mound” at Burford’s Crossing, about a half-mile south of Holly Ferry on the Alabama River.

Another Wilcox County mound can be found about three miles north of the mouth of Pine Barren Creek, on the south side, about 100 feet from the bank. This mound is four feet high and 100 feet in diameter. In addition, a group of four mounds can be found near Matthews Landing on the Alabama River.

But what about stone mounds? It’s well documented that Indians were living in what is now Wilcox County as far back as 9,000 B.C. (about 6,500 years before the Pyramids were built in Egypt), so they would have had ample time to build all sorts of structures, including stone mounds. With that said, the Wilcox County woods and countryside could be full of these undocumented stone mounds.

In the end, let me hear from you if you think you’ve ever run across one of these stone mounds while out walking in the woods. If you are like me, you may not have realized what you were looking at. Thanks to Holstein’s recent article, maybe more of these ancient sites will be documented in our neck of the woods.