Houston County Natives

When it comes to Houston County and its history, I’ve always been fascinated with pre-written times. At first glance, you may feel like it’s just the regular ole’ run-of-the-mill tales of arrowheads and pottery “stuff”, but you’d be wrong. Earlier last year, I picked up “A Land So Dedicated: the History of Houston County, Georgia” by Bobbie Hicks Nelson and my curiosity spiked to an all time high. A ton of information pertaining to different time periods and different people migrating through this land was only the first section of this hidden gem of a book. The prehistoric history of the county goes back even further than we could ever imagine. In this case, on Houston History Files, we’ll be taking an interesting look at a collection of some of the incredible evidence these people left behind, along with two amazing legends.

Native American history is one that has been told by many different people in many different ways. Our county is no different. According to reddirtvagabond.com, some of the tribes and people were in Middle Georgia as far back as possibly 17,000 BC. To put some perspective on that, just imagine a woolly mammoth hanging out near a paleo-tribe in the middle of Watson Blvd the next time you’re stuck in base traffic. All kidding aside, we’re talking a significant amount of time from Georgia’s first settlers to now. Keeping that in mind, we must understand that experts use tools and pottery along with remains to understand the timeframe of people who never recorded their history. It can be a bit confusing and long-winded, so I’m going to attempt to condense it into a small story here so I can tell you some of their stories.

Different time periods were identified and broken down into classifications as early tribesmen evolved. Equally so, the people themselves were put into classifications based on what region or time frame they came from. If you go even further into Native Americans, you’ll find them broken down into tribes and even being classified by where we believe they migrated from. For example, it’s easy to read a lot about “Creek Indians” in Middle Georgia because they are the most well-known. To clear the air, I am only calling them that for people who are new to their heritage and want to read about them. In fact, today they are the Muscogee Nation. Either way, they belonged to a period known as the Mississippian Period, which started about 800 years after Christ. Bobbie Hicks Nelson also notes that they are also the ones who evolved and became the farmers of the Ocmulgee River. According to her book, they were the temple and mound builders. Creeks (Muscogee), Choctaws and Cherokee tribes are the three most spoken about Mississippians. Please understand when I use the word “Indians” in this collection; I do so only to reference other, older studies and books.

Hopefully, you got through that without too much confusion, because there are some flat out fascinating topics about our local history. In the book mentioned above, it makes mention of another book written in the 1930’s called “The History of Macon County” that references a massive “Indian cave system” in the southwestern part of the county that ran underground all the way to Montezuma. The author, Louise Fredrick Hays, makes the claim that there was several sources that made mention of one entrance at “the old David Place” along with many other entrances to the system. There’s much more to it, however. There are other claims of people being about to drive a two-horse buggy underground into it. Others claim there are hieroglyphic markings at one of the entrances. What is known for certain about this is that they did indeed exist. Today, most people say it’s impossible to enter the underground structure any longer from any place. There are others who swear that you can. Either way, while doing research into those caverns, I found mention of something else that is remarkable.

According to the Houston Home Journal in 1951 and twice more in the 70’s, there was a spring that the native people believed had healing and medicinal properties. In the same article, it says “Long after they left this county for the Florida Everglades, the sick and diseased among them would return to this spring to be cured.” Wow! It makes mention that the spring was on the original “Indian trail” and was located between Hawkinsville and Grovania. It’s worth noting that today there is a popular natural spring turned swimming hole in that same area. There’s no way to determine if it is the same spring believed to heal the sick. Yet and still, it’s one of many pieces of a puzzle that was left behind for all of us to ponder. Even now, if you obtain permission from the landowners, you can go to a freshly plowed farming field in Houston County and have a really good chance at uncovering an arrowhead or some pottery. Let them always be shining reminders of the people this land once belonged to, and didn’t ask to leave.

Be sure to pick up “A Land So Dedicated: The History of Houston County, Georgia, for even more amazing historical facts about this county. You can find it at the Perry Area Historical Museum in Perry. Please, tell them I sent you! Next time, I’ll be discussing a case involving Tom Woolfolk, and how that Macon story connects to Houston County.

It’s deeper than you think!

For more of my research, please visit haunted-history.org. You can contact me with any information you feel needs to be told or even a correction at hauntedhistory@protonmail.com

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