STONE FORT AND OTHER ABORIGINAL REMAINS. IQl 



of the hills and bluffs. These rocks exhibit no marks of the hammer or of any 

 other mechanical instrument. They have been piled promiscuously together 

 without any regularity, and in some portions of the wall, earth has been freely 

 mixed with them, and also heaped upon the top of the structure. "Where the 

 bluff is steep and impassable, the wall ceases, as is shown in the preceding plan. 



The ditch in the rear of the works, extending from one branch of the river to 

 the other, is supposed to have been designed to convey water across, thus isolating 

 a high ridge of limestone rocks, called the Back Bone, which overlooks and 

 commands the Stone Fort. 



The entrance to the fortification deserves attention. On either side of the main 

 entrance on the north, the wall composed of loose stones has been strengthened, 

 forming what have been described as stone mounds. These more elevated 

 terminations of the wall probably served as lookouts, or positions for defensive 

 stockades and towers. They are about three feet higher than the main wall. Two 

 stone walls extend back from the main entrance, one of which bends at right 

 angles, leaving a space for a back entrance, as represented in Fig. 57. 



The ends of the stone walls facing the main 

 entrance on the inside are enlarged and elevated ■^'^' ^^' 



similarly to those of the outer wall already described. "^ 



The largest of these foundations for defensive towers, \ ■ 



. 13S ft ^1 



is about sixteen feet square and ten feet "hmh. f — 'Ai 



The ditch being on the inside of the wall, the side -"^ 120 n. ''M 



entrances are deep and narrow, and capable of admit- %, ^ ' 



ting not more than two men abreast. ^'^° 



_ , , p . . Plan of entrance to the stone Fort. 



beveral large lorest trees are still standing within 

 the inclosure and upon the walls, and Haywood states that, on the seventh of 

 August, 1819, Colonel Andrew Ewing caused to be cut down a white oak tree, 

 which grew upon the top of the wall, and that Major Maury and himself counted 

 357 rings. Colonel Ewing says: "The wall is mouldered down, so as to beat 

 present about sixteen feet wide on the surface of the earth, and about six feet 

 high. The rocks are covered with earth and appear like a hedge along an old 

 ditch. One-half or more of tlie rock is a slate copperas ore, taken out of the 

 bottom of the creek, on either side of the fort." - " The age of the tree," remarks 

 Haywood, " was seventy-eight years when De Soto landed in Florida, and thirty 

 years when Columbus discovered America." 



I carefully searched the enclosure for stone graves and relics, but discovered 

 nothing relating to the aborigines. As the fort had been used by soldiers during 

 a portion of the recent war (1861-1865) for a camping ground, and as a mill had 

 been erected on the Barren Fork, fragments of iron utensils and of copper are 

 occasionally found, also lead bullets, but these are clearly of modern date. Hay- 

 wood says: "Captain Eastand attempted to cultivate a part of the ground within 

 the fort, and, on the first attempt, in running a deep furrow, ploughed up a piece 

 of fiint glass, about one inch thick, and remarkably transparent ; it appeared to be 

 a piece of a bowl, very neatly fluted on its sides. There was also found a stone, 



