I am standing underneath a large natural bridge called Trapp Rock not too far from where I live. It is off the beaten path and on private property (the landowner is a friend). To give an indication of the size of this thing, I am standing in the light spot just left of center on the far end. A friend of mine who was heavy into native American lore showed me this place several years ago. It has a lot of petroglyphs carved into the sandstone ( along with some more modern graffiti ). I came across the mention of this place in a book about Alabama Indians a few years ago, but lost the book and have not ever found anything online in regards to it. There is a book titled Sun Circles & Human Hands by Funderburk and Foreman (two Alabamians) that has some art that resembles some of these symbols and the book also mentions some petroglyphs found in a shelter about five miles from here. It is a very cool place and thought it worth sharing.
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There are lots of these spirals/concentric circles here.
This sideview doesn't really do it justice.
The people who could tell us about this are long gone.
I've seen these turkey tracks at other locations.
Water was always a necessity. Even now dry waterways are good places to hunt these historic sites. I lived in the Big Bend of Texas for 22 years and was lucky to have seen pre-historic and late history sites. For some reason the spirals seem to be plentiful. I have a rock that is about 4"x9" and maybe 1 1/2" thick that is all spiralled on one side. Neat stuff, huh?
ReplyDeleteIndeed. I was in a museum in Mexico several years ago and saw several symbols I have seen here in north Alabama.
DeleteOverlooking the Great Salt Lake from near Tooele, Utah is a ridge having carvable rock. Easy to envision the carvers, except the ASS who left his name.
ReplyDeleteI'm in the foothills of the smokey mtns near a creek that runs year round, often thought of putting on my boots and spelunking when the lake gets drained down in the winter...
ReplyDeleteWhich lake would that be? The only one I know that has a tunnel is between Wolf Creek lake and Tanasee Lake in the Little Canada community above Tuckaseegee, NC.
DeleteIn the upstate of SC, there is Crystal Lake in Mountain Rest that supposedly has a large cave that can be seen if the lake is drawn way down.
That is so cool, wish we had something like that around here.
ReplyDeleteHistory that was rarely taught in schools. When I was young my Dad showed me Native American initials nearly 150 years old carved in sandstone and my Dad told me the name. I was there in the last year and sadly the rock sloughed off so they are gone but not forgotten. The mound people are an interesting history as well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that Irish, protect it best you can.
Bear Claw
ps The Natives were here before the Birth of Our Savior.
ReplyDeleteIrish, check out AbeBooks, very good used book finder.
ReplyDeleteMoss Rock Preserve in Hoover, Al just south of B'ham has an otherworldly boulder field and traces of ancient inhabitants who carved into the rock. Kind of like Horse Pens 40 but I think more interesting. Find something new every time I hike there.
ReplyDeleteIf you dig this kinda stuff, the NPS has an interview they did with Ned Chaffin about having grown up in SE Utah canyon area, homesteading and running cattle circa early 20th century. His family did everything from running cattle to guiding scientific expeditions into some of the prehistoric ruins in that area. My AO is LITTERED with these sites and the cool ones are the smaller out of the way undiscovered spots. They mostly run to pictographs and almost always animals of one sort or another. Almost like they're informational, like what type of game you can expect, nearby.
ReplyDeleteIn our area the natives built a spiral of rocks on the ground. Its nearly 300 feet across.
ReplyDeleteExile1981
That is awesome. What area is that Exile1981?
DeleteThanks Jeffrey. That's very interesting. Nemo
ReplyDeleteSymbols of an alien sky
ReplyDeletePlasma cosmology has a profound explanation why these symbols are carved in stone all across the planet.
Suspicious0bservers on youtube is full of the censored science
Up in WNC, on a road called Caney Fork, there is what's called Judaculla Rock, which has petroglyphs carved into the top. Probably from people before the Cherokees.
ReplyDeleteWe have "glades" throughout our area. Like the bluff shelters and boulders, they are sandstone. There are places where barren, basically flat, rock runs for miles. There is a place on the western side of our county that is called Rocky Plains because of the large areas of exposed rock. There is one about two miles from my house that runs for about a mile and half. I said that to say there is a glade above the shelter I mentioned in the initial post with the other petroglyphs that has such a glade above the shelter. Carved on top of it is "thunderbird" that resembles the bird on the hood of a 1978 Transman (yes, I'm telling my age). I guess it is four feet wide at the widest point of the wings. Send me some pictures and I'll put them up.
DeleteReally nice photos, Jeffery. And very interesting images.
ReplyDelete