Singleton writes of Indian burial mounds along Limestone Creek

Billy Singleton at Indian mound in 1971.

(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 “Limestone Creek Indian mounds may date back to early 1500s” was originally published in the Sept. 23, 1971 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

Pushing back the vines and bushes, I saw for the first time the Indian burial mounds along Limestone Creek. About three feet in height and about six and one-half feet in length, these mounds have gone almost unnoticed for many years.

The heavy growth of underbrush has done an excellent job of camouflage over the years. Several huge pine trees have grown up through some of the mounds, causing further disfiguration of the area. At the ends of most of the burial sites can be found a bunch of bear grass. I have found this to be a custom among the Indians of the Mississippian or early Historic period. The Historic period dates back to the early1500s and lasted until the early 1800s.

The bear grass is a tough wiry plant that has long slender blades with a sharp thorn or point at the end of each blade. These blades were used for many things. Being tough and stringy, they could be used as one would use a piece of short rope. They were planted around the villages for protection from the wild animals and to hang up meat to dry.

There is a legend about the bear grass that circulated among the Indians. According to the legend, when a warrior died and the bear grass was planted at his feet, the warrior’s spirit would remain free to roam at will and return whenever it chose, as long as the bear grass grew beside the final resting place of the fallen warrior. So if the legend it true, the spirits continue to wander along the bottoms of Limestone Creek, hunting the phantom deer and bear in the world of the great beyond.

As I rested there awhile, I could picture in my mind a young and handsome warrior who had fallen in battle, being laid to rest beneath the blanket of pine needles. The planting of the bear grass beside the grave, and spirit rising on the winds to the hunting ground in the sky.

As my sons and I walked away from this burial ground overlooking Limestone Creek, the lyrics of one of Longfellow’s poems came to mind.

This is the place, stand still my steed, let me review the scene, and summon from the shadowy past the forms that once have been.

(This column was also accompanied by a photo that carried the following caption: Billy Singleton, son of Sgt. and Mrs. George B. Singleton of Monroeville, at the site of the Indian burial mounds along Limestone Creek. Underbrush has camouflaged the mounds to the point that they have gone unnoticed for many years.)

(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 during a late-night thunderstorm on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School in 1946, served 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 1964 to 1987. For years, Singleton’s column “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. Some of his earlier columns also appeared under the heading of “Monroe County History: Did You Know?” 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.)