Clay County AlArchives News.....Strange Artistic Stone found in Clay County.  March 21, 1888
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Linda Ayres http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00031.html#0007674 September 20, 2023, 7:51 pm

Our Mountain Home March 21, 1888
A strange and artistic stone was brought to the "Home" office a few days since 
by J. F. Simmons, who lives a few miles from Millerville, Clay County, and no 
one can fully understand for what use it was devised or what race of beings were 
its devisers. It is a sandstone, some 12 inches square by 6 inches thick. Though 
the outward appearance would indicate the hand of nature, the mortar shaped 
basin in the centre is perfectly carved out and the marks left in the work show 
to a close observer that some sharp instrument had been used.
A gentleman familiar with Mexico says that it resembles the stones used there 
for crushing corn. If this stone is of Mexican or Spanish construction, it 
springs the question how it reached the mountains of Clay. Was it left by Cortez 
when he was exploring this region for gold, when seeking the Eldorado? The 
fashion is unique first a large bowl about 8 inches in diameter, and in the 
bottom a second basin shaped like an inverted cone. Was it to crush gold ore or 
to crush grain? The inner surface is rough as if made for crushing grain, so we 
will content ourselves by pronouncing it a maize mill until someone better 
posted in such matters throws more and different light upon this product of the 
dark ages. It is likely that it was not made by the painstaking Indian, for it 
was too rough a job, unless his work was incomplete.
So, we will give the business Spaniard the credit of the work, with his little 
hatchet, while in a hurry to grind his corn. Mr. Simmons plowed up the stone in 
his field and thinks he has a vein of gold running under the spot where he found 
the strange curiosity.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/clay/newspapers/strangea2352gnw.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/

File size: 2.3 Kb