Alabama

Calloway Creek

by James Mallonee

Calloway Creek is located on Highway 14 between Wetumpka and Coosada. The original creek was widened and deepened to form a canal, which is used for power production by Alabama Power.The canal is located in an area where there is a lot of petrified wood.

In this part of Alabama the wood often has crystals on it. In fact, sometimes whole tree trunks are covered with large crystals up to 1/2 an inch in diameter. These can blind you if you visit someone who is lucky enough to have one of these in front of their home.

There are only a few points of entry into the canal. Alabama Power is worried about insurance concerns and in the late 1970's put "No Trespassing" signs up along many of the access routes. Although they do not police these, people take their lives in their own hands by ignoring these warnings. The canal sides are very steep and the clay is very slick. There are powerful undertows in the canal, so if you fall in...

However, on the west side of the canal, there is an access road that leads to the dam. This access road allows people to go fishing, or to walk along the bank and look for the odd log that has weathered out of the gravel.

It is interesting that most of the logs in this area are located in the gravels, not in the clay layers. In some places interbedded layers in the sand point to fossilized sand dunes. There are also carbonized layers in the clay with chunks of pyrite mixed with carbonized wood. Other than the wood, I have not heard of any fossils found in this area.

One of the former members of the club used to have a "dirt farm" and sold truck loads of "topsoil". She and her workers found many tree trunks while digging dirt. They even found palm wood.