Visiting Haunted Shell Mound Park

Shell Mound is haunted by ancient ghosts.   They are ghosts from the Mississippian Period, 1100-1500 AD.  A lonely woman ghost haunts this historic site.  She dances on the mound at night bringing the sound of native music drifting through the hot night air with her.   When I visited Shell Mound Park,  there was no sign of any ghosts.   The only thing that haunted us is the brutal heat were the swarms of mosquitoes that descended on us in plagues.  They came and sucked us dry, sending me scurrying through my haunted exploration and making me somewhat blind to any ghosts that may have been chasing me. 

Shell Mound Park is a small park on the top of Dauphin Island.   For hundreds of years,  American Indians made pilgrimages to this site to eat oysters.   The evidence of this activity crunches beneath your feet as you walk through the park.  The hills that you walk across as you explore the park are made entirely of oyster shells.  If you dig down, you pull up a mixture of shell and soil.  This area is beautiful, if you can see past the sticky heat and mosquitoes.  Huge oaks drip with Spanish moss and hangs down so long it tickles the oyster shells beneath it.  It is easy to imagine a lonely ghost wandering this site.  It is easy to imagine an American Indian girl lingering in this swampy place, waiting to go home.

The Ghost of Shell Mound Park

The Beaches of Southern Alabama are littered with ghosts.  The shifting sands store untold tragedies and histories that collect ghosts like children collect coins.   Dauphin Island is no exception to this rule.  In addition to Fort Gaines, which is notoriously haunted, Dauphin Island is also home to Shell Mound Park.
Shell Mound Park holds old ghosts.

Shell Mound Park is the location of an ancient Indian archaeological site.   The site is from the Mississippian Period and dates back to 1100 AD.  The mounds were built over time.   Archaeologists believe that the Native Americans came to Dauphin Island periodically during the year to collect oysters.   It is believed that the natives came from the Bottle Creek site further North and gathered the oysters.  Oysters were a rare delicacy and worth the long journey to collect.  The mounds built up over centuries as the natives came, feasted upon oysters at this site, and then left their debris behind.  Over the centuries the oyster shells became large mounds.  When the natives stopped their feasting, nature took over and grew on the mounds.  Trees and grass grew on the shelly remains of the Indian's dinning site turning Shell Mound Park into what it is today.

There is an area amongst these mounds, that is devoid of trees.   Nature seems to avoid reclaiming this area and there is a desolation to it.   It is said that this is where the natives buried their dead.   Many locals and visitors to the park say that if you wander this area on a lonely night you can see a native woman standing in the middle of this quiet place, looking out.  Sometimes she can be seen dancing and the sounds of native music can be heard drifting out over the park.