Athahatchee: An Indian Town in Perry County

Athahatchee: An Indian Town in Perry County

An Indian town in Perry County, located in T. 20, R. 8, sec. 26, 9 mile from the bridge crossing Cahaba River, on the highway from Marion to the eastern section of the county. It is two miles from Sprott, and on the old Ford plantation.

The first reference to the site is found in the Chronicles of DeSoto, 1540, as the place where Tuskalusa received the expedition. It was one of the homes of this chief, although not the head town. It was tributary to Mauvilla.

No town of historic times can be associated with this village, but Cahaba Old Town, shown on old maps, at a point about three miles to the north, may be in a sense its successor. The site covers nearly a mile square, and is some distance from the river. It is out of the overflow district. A small clear stream flows southeastward by the town, and into the river a half mile below. On the western side of the locality, over which aboriginal evidences are yet to be found, is a flat top mound, more than fifty feet in diameter, and originally about ten feet high. It has been nearly leveled by cultivation. East of the site is a lake. On the south is a large spring. Numbers of stone objects have been picked up, and large earthen vessels have been plowed up from graves in the aboriginal cemetery, which borders the lake on the east.