The Redbird Petroglyphs
From mummified remains in the grand and gloomy depths of Mammoth Cave, to the massive remains of a Shawnee village at the “Indian Old Fields”, Kentucky is filled with pre-Columbian artifacts. One of the most unique, and perhaps cryptic examples of Native American history in the Bluegrass can be found sitting under a humble park shelter in downtown Manchester Kentucky at the Rawlings Stinson Park.
This small shelter consists of a lumber frame and a roof. It houses a 5.5ft x 20ft, 50 ton hunk of rock. This massive chunk of stone once hung on a bluff overlooking the Redbird River, until December 7th 1994 when it broke free from the bluff and crashed down onto Kentucky Route 66 below. On December 9th it was transported to its present location, and the shelter was built around it.
The reason this rock slide merited such extensive preservation efforts? The front face of this stone contains the Redbird Petroglyphs. The petroglyphs are a large collection of deeply etched symbols covering the majority of the stone face. Proponents of the idea that the Americas were visited prior to Columbus “discovering the new world”, claim that the petroglyphs feature 8 distinct old world languages including first century Greek and Hebrew, Old Libyan, Old Arabic and Iberian-Punic, Germanic runes and Tiffinag-Numidian. Of course even though they claim to clearly recognize the languages, no one has yet to offer up a translation of the writing.
Even though signage displayed at the park highlights this theory and attempts to showcase the alleged ancient languages, most serious scholars contend that the writings have a much less world changing explanation. It is most likely either some random scribblings left behind by the Cherokee when they inhabited the lands, or even the works of a colonial era American who was perhaps practicing writing in Greek or Hebrew (it was common for learned men of the day to be well versed in certain older languages).
Whether you see the petroglyphs as a grand clue in proving an ancient invasion of the Americas by Europeans, or simply as the colonial era doodlings of a bored settler, the undisputed fact seems to be that they’re at least a couple of centuries old and an interesting chapter in Kentucky history. Meanwhile the town of Manchester is relatively close to Corbin (home of the first KFC, and close to the Laurel River Lake), and not too far from Cumberland Falls State Park. This unique little attraction could easily be paired with one of these bigger locations to make for a great weekend getaway.
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