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By DONALD MOTTERN | Staff Writer

MONTEVALLO – Important projects that will soon make an impact on the visiting experience to Shoal Creek Park were discussed in length during a regularly scheduled Montevallo City Council meeting on Monday, Aug. 26.

During the meeting, Cheryl Patton, president of the Shoal Creek Park Foundation and Kathy King, who serves as the president of the Montevallo Legacy Project, delivered a presentation on their reception of a grant that will see an in-depth archeological project take place within the park.

“The focus of the grant is for the cemetery out at Shoal Creek Park,” King said. “For those of you who aren’t familiar with the cemetery, it’s at the northeast corner of the park. It has been neglected for as long as they’ve finished Shoal Creek Park, and so we got interested in seeing what exactly is out there.”

The cemetery, which King estimates to have first been established between 1820 and 1840 has fallen into a state of disrepair over its more than 150-year existence, with a rapid reduction in its condition over the past few decades. Over time, most of the previous headstones and site landmarks have been lost, moved or dislocated, leading to much of the area’s condition being unknown.

A previous grant awarded to the Shoal Creek Park Foundation has already allowed for the use of ground penetrating radar to aid in the outlining of the cemetery’s boundaries and gravesites that may be contained within the cemetery. However, that project ultimately proved inconclusive in its findings.

“The grant that I wrote, with a whole bunch of help from people in the foundation, is going to bring four professional archaeologists to Shoal Creek Park next summer,” King said. “They are going to work with Upward Bound students and give them an introduction to the profession of archeology. (They will also) let them do the shovel testing which will help us know what we have out there.”

It is the hope of the foundation that the archeological work will be able to not only identify the exact boundaries of the graveyard but also determine where most of the bodies are buried. King did preface the discussion by admitting that in some instances, the identification and designation of every gravesite may no longer be possible.

“We may not be able to be entirely precise about where each body is buried, but we should have a general idea and general area,” King said. “I should add that the graveyard is the graveyard for the Shoal Creek Baptist Church, which if you don’t know is the first Baptist Church in Shelby County. That’s another of the reasons that I think this grant got funded, it has educational potential but it is also a historic site.”

Based on historical records presented by their presentation, that church’s membership included members of the area’s African American community, two of whom were designated in the record as having been preachers to the church’s congregation.

“That means it also has significance for the African American Heritage Trail for the county, for Montevallo and the state,” King said.

As part of the archeology work, professionals will also work with students utilizing metal detectors and other equipment in an attempt to locate the exact grounds and location of the original church structure which has also been lost to time.

“We know that it was close to the graveyard,” King said. “But we have never been able to find out exactly where it was.”

In addition to the archeological work planned for the cemetery, the foundation also approached the Council with their work to create a trail loop that would link the cemetery to the park’s existing trail network.

“A big component of the grant was paying for and bringing in the archaeologists to work with those students, but we also asked for $22,000 to pay for ADA friendly trails that would lead to the cemetery and back,” King said.

Patton reported that the Shoal Creek Park Foundation had met with Trey Gauntt, chief facilities management officer with Shelby County, to discuss a number of viable trail paths.

Based on Gauntt’s recommendation, the foundation has settled upon a looping trail path that begins at Shoal Creek Park’s parking lot, goes to the green loop, moves toward the creek and the park’s bridge and reaches the cemetery before going back to the parking lot.

To construct the project, Gaunnt provided the city a quote of roughly $65,000 for the entire loop which is contingent on the work beginning immediately.

“It’s not a very big loop but the county recommended it be ten feet wide with crushed stone,” Patton said. “What the foundation is proposing is that the MDCD pay for 50 percent of that loop and that the foundation, along with (this current) grant, other grants that we’re pursuing and our fundraising efforts will pay for the other half.”

In line with providing that 50 percent, Patton formally asked the city to provide $32,500 for the project.

Although the grant’s expenditure timeline is currently set to conclude in December of 2026, given the county’s openness in term of funding and schedule, the Shoal Creek Park Foundation requested that the city move forward on phase one of the project, which constitutes the trail loop.

Following the completion of phase one, which constitutes the trails themselves, and after the SCP foundation works with the Montevallo Historic Preservation Commission on details, the current plan is to also install elements for the trail that will include signage in the parking lot detailing the graveyard.

“Then we will have signage at the cemetery itself,” King said. “Hopefully, (it will include) a map that shows the likely grave sites and then something interpretive when we have a better idea of what is (all at the site).”

In keeping with the natural theme and character of Shoal Creek Park, King also detailed an element of the installation that will honor those buried at the cemetery.

“What we’re proposing is a boulder that will have a brass plague on it,” King said. “The plaque will be in memorial of those who are buried at the site. That will really come about in phase two once we have the archeological input.”

The Montevallo City Council approved the proposal for the trails and agreed to provide the matching funding for the trail project in a unanimous decision.