The Home Place of William Jackson Overton as we found it on 12-9-11.. Double Springs, AL
PawPaw digging for gold...
I had just told Kamren he was about to slip and fall...and he did!!!!
Kyle laughing at Kamren when he fell...
The Waterfall....
Paw Paw and Kamren....
Kyle, Luke, Paw Paw and Kamren.....
On 12-9-11 Daddy ask me to ride with him up the road to take pictures of his Great Grand daddy's old home place. So off we went, which was about a hour drive. When we got there we drove past it a couple time because it was grown up we didn't see it. We wading through the brush to get to the house but could not get a good picture.
12-24-11 I was back home for Christmas and once again daddy wanted to go back with proper tools to cut the brush away to get a picture. My brother Wayne said he would take us back and help with the clearing. So off we go, Wayne, Luke, Daddy, Kyle, Kamren and my self. It took about an hour but this is the finally result. Everyone worked hard as I finished up with pictures.
Legend has it that William Jackson Overton rode beside Andrew Jackson in the War and that he had lots of Gold hidden somewhere around the old homeplace. My grand daddy (Ralph Overton) said that anytime someone went to visit William to borrow money he would go out back, down the hill and come back in about an hour with the money. So while the boys were clearing I walked down the hill to see what I could see.
Much to my surprise I saw many bluffs and what looked like a huge cave, and I heard water!!!! I went back to the house and told daddy and Wayne and they both said they didn't think there was anything down there. When they finished the clearing and we took many pictures, my boys being city boys wanted to check out what I saw so we all took to the woods.
This is where you realize your out of shape!!!!!
Going down was fine but once we got there it was bluff after bluff, up and down and over and beyond. It had been many years since I had been with my dad in the woods exploring.( when we were young every weekend after we did Bus visitation dad would take our family and a group of girls to near by Caverns) I think we were all very shocked and in Awe of what we found. Look was walking around with his dads old IPhone taking pictures of everything. My boys were all over the bluffs climbing and looking for the gold. The Waterfall was beautiful, to think he had this right in his back yard and for all these years we had to drive and pay to see caves and bluffs that were not as beautiful as these. The boys were all over the rocks climbing in and out of the holes. Kamren was walking on the ledge that went under the Waterfall and I had just said (Kamren your about to) when he fell to the ground with a huge axe in his hand, never letting it go, it was about a 12 ft fall.. Thank Goodness the ground was very soft and wet. My dad is in very good shape, not once did I hear him pat for breathe and he was always out in front of us all. I was the mother of the bunch worrying about my two city boys getting hurt and Luke didn't have a clue if we were there or if he was alone. The scary thing about these bluffs were you could be walking and out of nowhere your walking on the edge about to fall to your death, so I was in constant fear for these boys.
Well we explored for quite sometime down in the bottoms and now the tough part was getting back to the top. Me and my boys did not go to Winfield prepared for this type of outing. I did have on boots, Kyle and Kamren had on Crocs... Can you imagine those two in the woods, clearing brush from around the house and now down in the caves and bluffs in crocs??? Kyle was like he was Ice Skating, he could not stand up for slipping and sliding and that is why Kamren slipped and fell. We finally made it back to the top where we found the pile you see daddy in the picture at the top digging in. It appeared to be some kind of old truck or car.
We left with no gold but lots of memories with PawPaw....
