Welcome to the official blog of historian and writer Dale Cox. Articles here explore the history, archaeology, folklore, genealogy, and scenic beauty of the Southeast.
Beautiful old Uchee Chapel United Methodist Church has stood in the Uchee Community of Russell County, Alabama since before the wild man sightings. It was built in 1859 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The skunk ape, a smaller version of what many people call Bigfoot or Sasquatch, is usually associated with Florida. Many who believe in them, however, say they also live in areas of Alabama and Georgia.
Skunk apes are said to be bipedal creatures or apes. They stand 5-6 feet tall, are covered with hair, and live in the swamps and wetlands where humans rarely go. One of the most famous of these was the Ocheesee Pond Wild Man, a creature captured in 1884 at Ocheesee Pond in Jackson County, Florida. You can learn more about him by watching the short video at the bottom of this page.
Seven years earlier, a similar (or the same?) creature was spotted in the swamps along Uchee Creek in Russell County, Alabama:
Today's Uchee Road follows the approximate trace of the Old Federal Road through the area of the wild man sightings in Russell County, Alabama.
The people in the Hichtie [Hitchiti] country on the Uchee tell us of a wild man up there. He is about five feet high, covered all over with gray hairs, and is stark naked. He keeps concealed generally in the Uchee swamp, though he has been seen a number of times passing about and near the swamp. - Russell Register, July 1877.
The area along Uchee Creek was one of those where the Muscogee (Creek) Indians made their last stands in Alabama during the Creek Wars of 1813-1814 and 1836. These lands were coveted by white speculators and settlers because they were prime for growing cotton. The Old Federal Road wound along the ridge overlooking the Uchee swamp and its trace is followed - more or less - by Sandfort and Uchee Roads today.
Uchee Good Hope Cemetery, along the ridge overlooking Uchee swamp, was already 40 years old when the wild man made his appearance in the summer of 1877.
The 1877 report continued:
...About two weeks ago Johnnie, a little son of Mr. F.A. Boykin, saw him standing in a horse lot on the creek used for feeding stock when working that part of the plantation. As soon as he saw Johnnie he ran to the fence, jumped it, (ten rails) and made his escape to the swamp. His track upon being examined looked like that of a ten year old boy. - Russell Register, July 1877.
Several other eyewitnesses reported seeing the creature, but he grew with each telling until at least one said that it was over ten feet tall! Efforts were made to capture it throughout the summer of 1877, but each one failed. Whether the creature actually lived in the area or was just passing through was never determined.
Editor's Note: Learn more about the actual capture of another "wild man" in this fun story from Two Egg TV:
The Coosa River in the Alabama mountain country, where the
rash of monster sightings was reported in 1877.
Long before the Loch Ness Monster of Scotland entered the popular consciousness, eyewitnesses claimed that a similar creature roamed the waters of Alabama's Coosa River.
The most significant recorded wave of sightings of the Alabama monster took place in the late spring and summer of 1877. The first eyewitness to come forward - to his own later regret - was Mr. Marens L. Foster of Etowah County. He saw an object in the Coosa River that he first thought was a person:
...As he approached sufficiently near to see it distinctly, to his horror it proved to be a living monster or serpent, with head and neck erect, extending out of the water some three or four feet, its head resembling a horses head, large glaring eyes, and a mouth distended, showing a tongue of fiery red. The monster or serpent exhibited no signs of fear, but glared directly at him as it passed, and unprepared as he was, he thought discretion the better part of valor, and beat a hasty retreat to the opposite bank from which he watched it moving along like a man in a boat, showing now and then portions of its back until it reached a point opposite Thornton’s log yard, where it gave a plunge and disappeared from sight. Mr. Foster is an entirely trustworthy and reliable gentleman, well known in his community, and intelligent, and his statements may be relied upon. That he saw some monster there is no doubt in his own mind, but the improbability of the story has caused him to be very reticent about any statement he made on the subject. [1]
Coosa River at the Ten Islands near Ohatchee, Alabama. One
of the reported monster sightings took place near here.
The Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee Indians, who lived along the Coosa before they were driven west on the Trail of Tears, often told of seeing monstrous serpents and other creatures in the river. The events of 1877 created many new believers in the old stories:
The monster was seen Tuesday of last week by a party of raftsmen
about two miles above town [i.e., Gadsden, Alabama]. It approached the raft and was thrown at with
sticks, &c., by the persons on the raft, but it didn’t seem to care. The
men said it had a white belly and large knots on its back. A young man on the
raft became so frightened that it became necessary to hold him to keep him aboard. [2]
Other sightings were reported up and down the river that summer, and eyewitnesses came forward with stories of similar monsters from as far back as the winter of 1817-1818. So many people claimed to see it, that the monster remains one of Alabama's most intriguing mysteries.
Editor's note: Love great monster stories? Here are a couple of others that we think you will enjoy:
Editor's Note: This article continues "Monstery and Mystery Month" on Two Egg TV! To read the first article in the series, please see Pirate Ghosts of the Emerald Coast!
Long before real gold rose from the sands of Destin and South Walton, Choctawhatchee Bay was the focal point of a series of searches for buried treasure. In fact, many would-be millionaires still believe that a fortune in Spanish gold and silver remains to be found somewhere in the bay.
The frenzy surrounding the purported treasure reached its height in 1921-1925 after a man named W.S. Teachout claimed to know its precise location:
Mr. Teachout, who is about seventy years of age, said he could go and put his hands on three of the ships--one that was under only a few feet of sand, that he found it several years ago, and was only waiting for someone with enough money to tackle the job. He was told that men and boats were at his disposal, and that dredges, pumps, and divers would be gotten if necessary. [1]
Rocky Bayou as seen from the shoreline at Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park in Niceville, Florida. The park is
one of the prettiest spots on Choctawhatchee Bay's north shore.
The legend, as told by Teachout, was that a flotilla of pirate ships was cornered in Choctawhatchee Bay by Spanish warships. East Pass was too shallow for the vessels to escape, and the Spanish had blocked the channel leading from the Choctawhatchee through Santa Rosa Sound to Pensacola. Instead of surrendering to face not just the loss of his treasure but his execution on the gallows at Pensacola, the pirate leader scuttled his gold-laden ships and escaped into the woods with his crew.
No documentation that the legend is true has ever been found, and there is a good reason for skepticism. Evidence, however, has never been a barrier to true believers!
Mr. Teachout found ready investors, and they met him at Valparaiso, ready to begin the search. That's when things got very strange:
...Wednesday night there was a dance in Valparaiso and
several strangers were present, two of whom attempted to draw Mr. Teachout into
conversation about the treasure. Thursday morning when a boat went out with Teachout and
others an airplane soon appeared and hovered over the boat. The boat remained out all morning, and so did the plane. It
hovered over the treasure seekers’ boat until noon, when the boat returned to
Valparaiso, and the plane flew away. [2]
Did a flotilla of treasure-laden pirate ships meet its end
in Northwest Florida's Choctawhatchee Bay?
The 1921 search focused on areas along the north side of the bay between Valparaiso and Freeport. Newspaper writers reported seeing "mysterious figures," including one of a ship carved into large trees along the shore.
To his own chagrin, Teachout was not able to lead the searchers to the treasure, and the hunt came up empty. The effort to find gold and silver in the bay, however, was far from over. Things got hot again in 1925 when a mysterious dredge left Pensacola and made its way through Santa Rosa Sound to Choctawhatchee Bay:
…Movement of the big barge through the narrows of the sound is a costly process but it was accomplished, the first stop of the barge being at the south shore in Hogtown Bayou. In the past days the dredge has been working off Camp Walton [i.e. Fort Walton Beach].
Lands on the north shore of Choctawhatchee bay, where old timers say treasure is really cached, are owned by the Dixie Town and Land company, and its officials have announced that they will permit no trespass of their properties or riparian rights. The barge crew has been warned not to come within 1,000 feet of this shore line or injunctions will be obtained against them. [3]
The north shore of Choctawhatchee Bay is said by some to be
the location of a mysterious buried treasure.
Part of the north shore of the bay - then as now - was the property of the U.S. Government. Military officials were so concerned about the treasure seekers that they launched planes to shadow their movements. This might also explain the mysterious aircraft that followed the 1921 expedition.
The expense and determination expended on the 1925 expedition failed to bring treasure up from the bottom of Choctawhatchee Bay. The search came up empty, and legends of buried treasure continue to this day.
Is there really a buried treasure? And if so, who could have left it there? The only real answer to the first question is that anything is possible. No documentation of Spanish ships cornering a pirate flotilla in Choctawhatchee Bay has ever been found, but it is challenging to prove a negative. As to who could have left it there, legend current in 1925 credited the famed Louisiana pirate Jean Lafitte.
Editor's Note: Watch for another mystery tomorrow right here on our web channel at www.twoeggflorida.com.
REFERENCES
[1] Wiregrass Farmer quoting the Valparaiso Herald, September 8, 1921.
Stunning formations at Florida Caverns
State Park in Marianna, Florida.
The caves of the Marianna area and Florida Caverns State Park were places of mystery, legend and sometimes even hiding for our ancestors.
Creek and Seminole families hid in caves during the First Seminole War. They were the first stop on the Underground Railroad for African-Americans escaping slavery. Women, children and the elderly used them as hiding places during the Battle of Marianna. Outlaws frequented out of the way caverns during reconstruction and moonshiners made use of more than one during Prohibition!
In one case - if the media is to be believed - a man even stayed inside one for 37 years!
The story appeared in a New York newspaper in 1887 and was picked up by other papers across the nation:
...A few days ago there appeared upon the register of the Fifth Avenue hotel the name of a gentleman from Marianna, Fla. He was a good talker, and told a most extraordinary tale of an occurrence that took place in the neighborhood of his home town. It is believed by everybody in that section of the state, "and," said the narrator, "I am not prepared to say it is not true, as more than half the people in that town saw the hero of the story." - (New York Graphic, 1888).
Billy Bailey of Florida Caverns State Park explores
the narrow passages of Old Indian Cave.
The incident originated from a large cavern 2 miles from Marianna. Tradition identifies this as the Natural Bridge or "Old Indian" Cave at today's Florida Caverns State Park. That cave, however, does not have a spring or karst window inside as the story relates:
...On April 1, 1884, a party of explorers consisting of two gentlemen and five ladies, visited the cave. They followed the path that led to a point known as "The Spring," where a bold stream of cold clear water gushed forth from the rock, and flowed in a rivulet for some fifty feet and disappeared under a mass of detached fragments of limestone. - (New York Graphic, 1888).
It may or may not be significant that the date of this expedition was given as April Fool's Day.
The South America Pool during a time of low water. The rim
of the pool approximates the shape of South America.
There are a number of caves immediately around Marianna that match the description given in the article. The "South America Pool" in the tour cave at Florida Caverns State Park forms a rivulet of clear water at times and the Ladies' Cave west of the park has a strong-flowing stream of water. Both are within 2 miles of Marianna.
It was after the party of explorers reached "the Spring" that the story got really interesting:
...[O]ne of the gentlemen of the party, with his cane, detached a jutting rock particularly brilliant with mica spangles from what seemed the solid wall of rock. A large mass of loosened rock followed the fragments with a crash which reverberated hundreds of times throughout the cavernous depths. Then it was an astonishing sight met the eyes of the party which at first rendered them motionless with horror and fright. A hitherto unknown chamber was seen through the aperture, and but a few feet away, apparently motionless as the stone floor on which it lay, was the body of a man clad in the habiliments of a soldier, with his musket beside him. - (New York Graphic 1888).
Kelly Banta of Florida Caverns State Park guides a tour
through an enchanted forest of columns and formations.
It took a few minutes for the explorers to recover their senses enough to move closer. The man did not appear to be breathing but neither did he show signs of being dead. The two male explorers tried to lift the body which caused its rotten clothing and equipment to fall away. They wrapped it in a waterproof coat and carried it to the banks of the underground spring. The ladies of the party made their way out to daylight and headed to Marianna in their carriage to alert the citizens.
The two gentlemen explorers located two other men nearby and with them reentered the cave:
...They went directly to the spring. To their astonishment they found that the man supposed to be dead was living with half open eyes, breathing stertorously, while a faint color tinged his cheek. Examination disclosed rapid but distinct pulsation. The horrified men carried the phenomenon to the open air outside the cave as quickly as the burden would allow. - (New York Graphic, 1888).
The men succeeded in getting the "phenomenon" to take a few sips of brandy and then took him to a nearby cabin. They left him there and started for town but quickly ran into a group of some 50 townspeople on its way to the cave. The crowd went to the cabin and the mysterious stranger was examined by several of Marianna's doctors.
The tour cave at Florida Caverns State Park offers visitors
an incredible array of formations and colors.
They gave him stimulants and he soon recovered enough to talk but due to his weakness the physicians would not allow him to be asked questions until the following day. He then told the following story:
...He said that in 1837 he was sent from Pensacola to Fort Dade with important military papers. When near Marianna he was followed by a band of Choctaws, who had gone on the warpath in sympathy with their Seminole brethren. Being hard pressed, he abandoned his horse and finding a hole in the ground he squeezed into it, and fearing the Indians would discover his trail, went some distance into the cave, when he suddenly felt a difficulty in respiration, a feeling of drowsiness came over him, and he remembered no further. - New York Graphic, 1888).
The story is definitely bizarre but it includes some little known true facts. Probably the most significant is that there was a handful of Choctaw warriors with a group of Creek Indians that fled into the Florida Panhandle following the Battle of Hobdy's Bridge, Alabama, in February 1837. This fact is so obscure that many modern researchers of the Seminole War are not aware of it.
The Cathedral formation at Florida Caverns State Park. Did a
Seminole War soldier really spend 37 years in such a cave?
Also of significance is the mention of Fort Dade, a Seminole War log fort that should not be confused with a later Fort Dade that is open to the public on Mullet Key near St. Petersburg. The original Fort Dade was built in 1837 where the historic Fort King Road crossed the Withlacoochee River near today's community of Lacoochee, Florida.
The New York newspaper's account of this Florida "Rip Van Winkle" concludes:
...It was hard to make the soldier believe that thirty-seven years had passed while he lay in coma, and that the fields of rice, sugar cane and cotton which dotted the landscape were the same wilderness through which he had been chased by the Indians. He seemed to be of a retiring disposition, and did not care to pose as an object of curiosity, and when his strength fully returned disappeared, and was never afterwards heard of. - (New York Graphic, 1888).
Could a Seminole War soldier really have slept for 37 years in a Marianna cave? The writer of the story's original headline probably summed it up best: "A story that the guileless people of Florida unhesitatingly believe."
Dale Cox
May 4, 2017
P.S. To hear the version of this legend as told today and to journey into Old Indian Cave at Florida Caverns State Park, please click play on this video:
