Was the mysterious 'Bailey's Well' at Franklin, Alabama a large sinkhole?

Monroe County's Corky Pugh

A couple of months ago, I mentioned a location in northern Monroe County called “Bailey’s Well.” I have never been to this place before, but it’s said to be an extremely deep hole located in a field somewhere in the Franklin community. Sources say that it was once curbed by old, handmade bricks and that no one remembers who originally dug the well.

Supposedly, this “Well That Won’t Stay Filled” has been abandoned since the early 1800s. It’s been said that numerous attempts were made to fill this hole with rocks, railroad tracks, junk and timber logs, but all of those items disappeared without a trace, leading some people to believe that the well connects with an underground river or that its bottom is filled with quicksand.

A few days ago, I received a message related to Bailey’s Well from one of Monroe County’s favorite sons, Corky Pugh. Many in the reading audience will remember Corky, who was for many years a prominent public official in Montgomery. In 2011, he retired after serving 12-1/2 years as the director of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division.

Corky said that according to his beloved great-aunt Virgie Bailey, “Bailey’s Well” was a hole in the ground on the 40-acre plot of land where her house was located. All that is left of her old home place now are a few pecan trees on a knoll in a cow pasture on the south side of River Ridge Road, about a mile east of State Highway 41.

Aunt Virgie described the deep hole on her property as a “sinkhole” rather than as a well. She said that whole full-length tree trunks had been dropped into the hole during past attempts to fill it. According to her accounts, the trees simply disappeared without a trace.

This hole was situated somewhere in the field behind her house. Corky said that he never actually saw it because he “dutifully avoided the area when I was there hunting as a child.”

After hearing from Corky, I did some research and found a story in an old edition of The Journal that described a trip that Journal columnist George Singleton and photographer Aaron White took to Bailey’s Well in July 1971. During that trip, Singleton interviewed Mrs. B.H. Bailey of Franklin. She was 85 years old in 1971 and said that she remembered her father’s unsuccessful attempts to fill the hole when she was a small girl.

“Over the years, trash and junk of one kind or another has been thrown in the well to get rid of it, but no trace has been found as to where all this has gone,” Mrs. Bailey told Singleton. “Several years ago, some long poles were laid across the top to keep anyone from falling in.”

In the end, I’d like to hear from anyone in the reading audience with more information about Bailey’s Well. I would especially like to hear from anyone who knows where it is located or from anyone who would be willing to take a few minutes to show it to me. No doubt, this deep hole qualifies as one of Monroe County’s true oddities.