Old newspaper clipping tells of unusual Indian site, 'peculiar hieroglyphics' and 'very large' Indian mound in Wilcox County, Alabama

Dr. Eugene Allen Smith

Regular readers of this weekly column will know that I enjoy writing about anything related to the old Indians who once lived in our area long before the first white settlers arrived. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been interested in Indian mounds, arrowheads, spearpoints and other artifacts and relics. With that in mind, a reader this week sent me a clipping from a nearly 100-year-old newspaper that I found absolutely fascinating.

According to the Sept. 17, 1925 edition of The Wilcox Progressive Era, “Mr. W.P. Preston, who lives near Bellview, has discovered on his land two very striking rocks and has written Dr. Eugene Smith of Tuscaloosa about his find. Some time ago, there was a cave in of the land, exposing two flint rocks, one is about six to eight feet long, with top and sides and bottom perfectly smooth, with a hole through the center, four inches in diameter, extending within two feet of the end. Underneath the end where the hole stops are some kind of peculiar hieroglyphics. This rock probably weighs two tons. The other rock is nearby, is five or six feet long, tapering at each end, scooped out, in the exact shape of a skiff. Nearby is a very large Indian Mound, which has never been opened, and quantities of flint arrow heads are all around the surface of the ground.”

Digging deeper into the clues provided by this clipping, I believe W.P. Preston to be William Pinson Preston, who would have been 68 years old in September 1925. Preston died in 1939 and is buried in the Tait Cemetery, located west of Coy near the Alabama River. Those familiar with the Bellview community will know that it is located a few miles southeast of Coy, just north of the Wilcox-Monroe County line, not far from Hybart.

The Dr. Eugene Smith referenced in the article is most certainly Eugene Allen Smith, who served as Alabama’s state geologist for many years. Smith, who was 83 years old in 1925, was a longtime professor at the University of Alabama, and he also helped establish the Alabama Museum of Natural History. In fact, the building that houses the museum in Tuscaloosa is named “Smith Hall” in his honor.

Reading the descriptions of the “two very striking rocks” found by Preston, one is left to wonder if the rocks still remain where he found them. What was their purpose and how had they become buried? What caused the cave in and what did the hieroglyphics look like? Just how big was the “very large” mound and is it still undisturbed? What else, including possibly other large stones, remain buried at the site?

In the end, I’d like to hear from anyone in the reading audience who might have more information about these two unusual rocks and the nearby Indian mound. Can they still be seen today or were they destroyed at some point in the past? Any additional information about the stones and mound would be greatly appreciated, so please let me hear from you.