History

From native populations to modern day visitors, Lost Cove’s rich past retains its capacity to inspire

Before the arrival of Euro-Americans in the 19th Century, Native Americans, probably Cherokees or Choctaws, lived in the cove. Well into the 20th Century, Native Americans returned to the cove to visit, according to Gerald Smith, Professor of Religion. There is some reason to believe that Lost Cove contains a Native American mound, though such a site has not been found.

Because of its isolation and private ownership, there has been little archeological study of upper Lost Cove, but Sarah Sherwood, visiting Assistant Professor of Archeology at The University of The South, says there is good reason to believe the tract will be a rich area for study. Sites in north Alabama have been dated to 13,000 years ago. Caves on the property and the escarpment bluffs are likely to contain Native American habitations.

In 1959, Sewanee students supported by the Department of Biology, conducted a two year excavation of Peter Cave, one of the three openings to Lost Cove cave complex, where they discovered potsherds, projectile points and other signs of human habitation. Gerald Smith, Professor of Religion, who has studied Lost Cove, notes that “early and very limited excavations at the caves suggest that Native American occupation here may be fully parallel to that at nearby Russell Cave —that is, dating to 10,000-12,000 years ago.” A number of petroglyphs have also been found that Sherwood says could be more than 2,000 years old.

The Euro-American settlement of Lost Cove at one time may have been as large as 100 people. The 1870 Census lists 23 people living in Lost Cove. In addition to farm buildings there were several sawmills, a church, and a school. A student group at Otey Parish is believed to have operated a mission in the Cove.

In 1947, a writer for the “Memphis Commercial Appeal,” Paul Flowers, visited Lost Cove. At that time only three residents remained. Flowers details a hike he took with Arthur Chitty and Robert Daniel. The purpose was to deliver a photograph of one of the three residents, Miss Mucidore Garner, who had recently returned to the cove after a stay at Emerald-Hodgson Hospital, where Chitty had taken the picture. She had been carried in and out of the cove on a litter.

Flowers visited one of the cave entrances, probably Buggytop. His description is lyrical.

“The cave itself is virtually unspoiled by human touch. It yawns upon the valley, a great depressed dome sunk into a wall of limestone, with a mouth some 50 or 60 feet high and at least that wide across. Out of the center pours the creek water, cool and crystal, to send up a gentle mist when it strikes the warmer air outside. Masses of ferns grow in the mouth of the cave, as far back as light reaches, but in the darker recesses there are fish and salamanders which have lost their eyes through disuse in millions of years of darkness.”

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