RSS Feed
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Historic canoe found in 1980 returns to Clarke County
One such artifact revealed itself in the summer of 1980 that must have been during a long dry spell such as we are having this year and causing the river levels to be lower than normal. It was in June of that year that an ancient dugout canoe was discovered protruding from the mud along the riverbank below the Coffeeville Lock and Dam. Wooden artifacts of that age are rare because most of them decay after a few years and are lost forever. Occasionally, objects that have been buried in mud or submerged in water will survive if they are not exposed to oxygen.
The discovery of the aforementioned canoe was the subject of a story written by George Lammons that appeared in The South Alabamian on June 19, 1980. It was reported that the river had given up another relic when state conservation officers Johnny Reed and the late Ben Griffin dug a 20 ft. 7in. canoe out of the bank of the Tombigbee River on the Clarke County side, near the mouth of Satilpa Creek. "I had seen it the day before and just drifted by," Reed said. "I didn't know if it was a log or not because it was stuck in the mud." What it was was a dugout canoe made from a cypress log. Reed said the canoe was in good shape except for one end that broke off. However, he added that he thought it could be repaired without much problem. Griffin said he didn't know for sure if it had been used by Indians or early settlers, but "it appears by the axe marks that it might have been made by early settlers." Griffin said it could have drifted down the creek or the river, or may have been used there and covered up with mud. He said the early settlers around Salitpa used the river there a lot. Reed said he saw it when he was patrolling the river. The next day he contacted Griffin to help him dig it out. Once out of the mud, they drug it to the landing and put it on a trailer. When they got it out of the river they sunk it in a pond to prevent it from decaying. This prevented oxygen from getting to the wood. Reed said when they saw it needed to be handled with proper care he called the archaeology and geography department at the University of South Alabama in Mobile. The university is the depository for such south Alabama relics. He said the canoe would be treated with a preservative and then put on display so that all the people in the county could enjoy it. Both men, known for their finds and collections of relics said that they had never found anything "like that." "Our intention was to get it to a Clarke County museum," Griffin said. I am sure that if Mr. Griffin were still alive he would be pleased to know that his wish has finally been realized. The canoe has once again been retrieved from obscurity. For the past 27 years it has been in storage at the University of South Alabama, and for all practical purposes lost again. The university, being pressed for space has graciously relinquished possession of the canoe to its rightful owners. It has been carefully preserved and protected, for which we are grateful. Unfortunately, no one has yet been able to determine the exact age of the canoe nor if it was the Indians or early settlers who originally built and used it. We may never know, but it doesn't change the fact that it was a rare and important discovery and we are proud to have it back home where it belongs. Last Friday Tommy Hart, Maurie Outlaw and myself journeyed to Mobile to retrieve the canoe. With the help of some of the university students the canoe was gently loaded into a custom built cradle and brought back to Grove Hill. It will remain in storage until such time as proper display space can be found.
This important, historic artifact now belongs to The Clarke County Museum and the citizens of this county. That was the intent of Ben Griffin and Johnny Reed from the beginning and we will be eternally grateful for their generous gift to the people of Clarke County.
|
for larger version       |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
)
)
