By Staff Writer Dave Domezik
MONTEVALLOA distinctive sight for visitors to Shoal Creek Park is the presence of students using shovels, tents scattered around the field, and the soft buzz of archaeological work. All of this is a part of an interactive educational initiative that aims to uncover one of the first religious landmarks in Shelby County.
High school students are spending two weeks at the park learning the fundamentals of archaeological fieldwork and possibly assisting in the search for the original location of the Shoal Creek Baptist Church, the first Baptist church in Shelby County, thanks to a collaboration between the City of Montevallo, the Office of Archaeological Research at the University of Alabama, and the University of Montevallo’s Upward Bound program.
According to Carey Heatherly, archivist and special collections librarian at the University of Montevallo, the initiative has two primary objectives. The first is giving the campus’s Upward Bound students educational opportunities. The second is to learn more about the Shoal Creek Park area’s past.
The northeastern portion of the park is thought to be the location of the original Shoal Creek Baptist Church and the cemetery that was built there in the early 1800s. Although the location of the cemetery is known, the precise location of the church building is still unknown. Under careful supervision, the students and archaeologists hope to unravel this enigma using metal detector surveys and shovel tests. To prevent disturbing any graves, fieldwork will be restricted to a depth of no more than 50 centimeters, or roughly 20 inches.
According to Heatherly, the groups are smaller in the cemetery. In there, they are managing the pupils under a bit more supervision.
In the classroom, the students were introduced to archaeological ethics, techniques, and the site’s possible cultural significance. Under the supervision of certified archaeologists from the University of Alabama, they are engaged in shovel testing, ground-penetrating radar scanning, and meticulous data collection in the field.
According to Heatherly, the University of Montevallo does not provide an anthropology or archaeology program. We believed that high school students participating in the Upward Bound program would benefit from this experience. They can gain some field experience and determine whether archaeology is something they want to pursue as a career if they ever consider it.
A grant from Alabama’s Educational Trust Fund is funding the project, which is being sponsored by the Shoal Creek Park Foundation. As part of the grant’s closeout procedure, the OAR team will submit the final report to the state. The study might also help a special Shoal Creek Park group that is working to preserve the cemetery.
Heatherly asserts that initiatives such as this are critical to the preservation and comprehension of regional traditions.
According to him, the church would be among the oldest in Shelby County and this cemetery would rank among the county’s oldest cemeteries. Additionally, it is a very old Baptist church.
Through practical learning, the project has given students a real link to local history in addition to information.
According to Heatherly, you can learn things in a classroom, but the true hands-on experience comes from going out into the field and carrying out the task while being supervised by a qualified, certified expert.
In addition to discovering the tangible relics of the past, students are also gaining a greater understanding of the narratives that have shaped their community as they excavate, sort, and survey the soil beneath Shoal Creek Park.
“I hope this project keeps people thinking about Montevallo’s history and this area of Shelby County,” Heatherly said.
