Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Barren County

From http://www.wendtroot.com/cockrill/d0003/d0003notes/BarrenCountyKentucky.html: "Caves, pre-historic remains, human bones and inscriptions upon trees, are among the wonders and curiosities of the county. On a large beech tree, which stood upon the bank of the tributary of the Little Barren River, is said to have been found by Edmund Rogers, one of the earliest surveyors in the Green River country, the following inscription: "James McCall, of Mecklenberg County, N. C., June 8, 1770." Other initials were found on the same tree.
Near Glasgow is a cave in the bluff of the river, in which many human bones were found. The cave was never fully explored, and nothing beyond the mere fact of bones being found is known concerning it. Another cave on Skaggs' Creek was discovered, in which were found bones, but their size indicated that they were wholly the bones of children. A bone was found in this cave--apparently a "Knight Templar drinking cup"--which seemed that part of the skull about the crown of the head, and bore traces of carving on the outside, and of having been scalloped on the edges. We read of savage kings of olden times drinking wine from the skulls of their slaughtered enemies; this may have been a custom among the prehistoric people of the Ohio Valley."