north alabama

last night my wife and I decided to go try to find the carving I remembered from high school. It is located at Cherokee Rock Village in Sandrock AL. My goal: find the carving, sketch it on paper, photograph it, try to decipher what we could of it, and use my metal detector around the site to look for any evidence of past visits. We pulled up to the parking lot of the park around 10 pm. It was pitch black out, the air; hot and humid. We were the only people there. there was an eerie silence to the place. we grabbed our gear from the car and hit the trail. Keep in mind i haven't been to the site of the carving in years so finding it might be l little tricky for me. We Walked in circles for about 45min. crawling over boulders, squeezing through cracks, and following trails. I decided to go back to the car and rest and regroup my thoughts of where the location is. while at the car i dropped my gear ( metal detector and backpack ) and decided to go light. I would give it one last try. we carried just our lights and phones. After a little more climbing, crawling, and backtracking, we finally found it. By this time it was probably close to 12 midnight. There it was carved into the sandstone wall just as i had remembered. now time to decipher. The carving almost looks like a headstone at first glance. It is outlined with a square bottom and domed top just like a headstone. At the top is a cross with what looks like a name under it. The cross struck me as odd because it was carved with a vertical board witch is normal but the horizontal board is very slanted. this was done on purpose and i don't know why. The name under the cross spells MD DANIEL. under that name looks to be the initials of several other men on the left side. In the middle is a 93 and to the right looks to be the words  By MEL. Under the headstone like carving is the date OCT. 21 1893. under the date are several more names and initials. We could make out the name  H. Mackey, and a name with Back in it. there were three more letters behind the word back??? but we couldn't make them out. I didn't get to sketch the carving or use my metal detector as i had left them at the car earlier. However i did manage to take some pics with my phone. This was defiantly one interesting night. Now i have to see if i can research the names and the date on the carving to see who these men were and why they were there. I plan on going back soon to sketch and use my metal detector now that i remember where the carving is located. That will be another day I get to go explore.

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Hi Woody,
     I've been to Cherokee Rock Village many times, even camped among the rocks. I've never seen the inscription you found, but the crooked cross is a satanic symbol and represents satin worship and witches. I know of one other satanic site in Cleburne County near the Talladega National Forest where ceremonies were held.
It wouldn't surprise me if the rocks were a setting for Satanic worship at one time or another.  The names on the rock could be the names of the satanic priests. It could also represent the night riders of the time(Ku Klux Klan). The crooked cross is also associated with the swastika adopted by Hitler and the third reich.  The history of the cross goes back to the early Christian movement and those that opposed Christianity in the third century (and posibly earlier) of the modern era.
I would really like to see your sketches, especially if you find any other symbols.

Duchess

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