By DONALD MOTTERN | Editor

MONTEVALLO – Important projects that will soon impact the visitor experience at Shoal Creek Park were discussed in detail during a regularly scheduled Montevallo City Council meeting on Monday, August 26.

During the meeting, Cheryl Patton, president of the Shoal Creek Park Foundation, and Kathy King, president of the Montevallo Legacy Project, gave a presentation about receiving a grant that will enable the conduct of a comprehensive archaeological project in the park.

“The focus of the grant is the cemetery at Shoal Creek Park,” King said. “For those of you who aren’t familiar with the cemetery, it’s on the northeast corner of the park. It’s been neglected since Shoal Creek Park was completed, so we were keen to see what exactly was there.”

The cemetery, which King estimates was established between 1820 and 1840, has fallen into disrepair over the more than 150 years of its existence, and has deteriorated rapidly in recent decades. Over time, most of the site’s earlier headstones and landmarks have been lost, misplaced or moved, leaving the condition of the area largely unknown.

A previous grant to the Shoal Creek Park Foundation already enabled the use of ground-penetrating radar to delineate the boundaries of the cemetery and the burial sites that might be present within it, but the results of that project were ultimately inconclusive.

“The grant I applied for, with a whole bunch of people from the foundation, will bring four professional archaeologists to Shoal Creek Park next summer,” King said. “They’ll work with Upward Bound students and give them an introduction to the profession of archaeology. (They’ll also have them) do the shovel testing that will help us figure out what we have out there.”

The foundation hopes that archaeological work will determine not only the exact boundaries of the cemetery, but also the locations where most of the bodies are buried. King acknowledged at the beginning of the discussion that in some cases it may no longer be possible to identify and name all of the graves.

“We may not be able to say exactly where every single body is buried, but we should have a rough idea and rough area,” King said. “I should add that the cemetery is the cemetery of Shoal Creek Baptist Church, which, if you don’t know, is the first Baptist church in Shelby County. That’s another reason why I think this grant was funded. It has educational potential, but it’s also a historical site.”

The historical records they provided indicate that the membership of this church included members of the area’s African-American community, two of whom are listed in the records as former preachers of the congregation.

“That means it’s also significant to the African American Heritage Trail, to the county, to Montevallo and to the state,” King said.

As part of the archaeological work, experts will also work with students and use metal detectors and other equipment to try to determine the exact site and location of the original church building, which has also been lost over time.

“We know it was near the cemetery,” King said. “But we could never figure out exactly where it was.”

In addition to the archaeological work planned for the cemetery, the Foundation also asked the Council to create a circular walking trail that would connect the cemetery to the park’s existing network of paths.

“A big part of the grant was to pay and recruit the archaeologists to work with the students, but we also asked for $22,000 to fund ADA-friendly hiking trails leading to the cemetery and back,” King said.

Patton reported that the Shoal Creek Park Foundation met with Trey Gauntt, Shelby County’s chief facilities management officer, to discuss a number of possible trails.

Based on Gauntt’s recommendation, the foundation has chosen a loop trail that begins at the Shoal Creek Park parking lot, leads to the green loop trail, heads toward the creek and park bridge, reaches the cemetery, and finally returns to the parking lot.

To implement the project, Gaunnt presented the city with a cost estimate of around $65,000 for the entire ring road, which is tied to an immediate start of work.

“It’s not a very large loop, but the county has recommended that it be 10 feet wide and covered with gravel,” Patton said. “The foundation is proposing that the MDCD fund 50 percent of that loop and that the foundation, along with (this current) grant, other grants we apply for and our fundraising efforts, fund the other half.”

To cover that 50 percent, Patton officially asked the city to provide $32,500 for the project.

Although the grant is currently not scheduled to be disbursed until December 2026, given the county’s openness regarding funding and timing, the Shoal Creek Park Foundation urged the city to proceed with the first phase of the project, the loop trail.

After completing the first phase of creating the actual trails, and after the SCP Foundation works with the Montevallo Historic Preservation Commission on the details, the current plan is to install elements for the trail as well, including signage in the parking lot detailing the cemetery.

“Then we’ll have signage at the cemetery itself,” King said. “Hopefully (it will) include a map showing the likely burial sites and then something explanatory when we have a better idea of ​​what (everything on the grounds) is.”

To maintain the natural theme and character of Shoal Creek Park, King also detailed an element of the installation designed to honor those buried in the cemetery.

“We are proposing a boulder with a brass plaque,” King said. “The plaque will commemorate the people buried at this site. That will happen in phase two once we have the archaeological data.”

The Montevallo City Council has approved the trail proposal and unanimously agreed to provide appropriate funding for the trail project.