A Stone Serpent Mound in KY?

An ancient path runs across the hilltop ridges from Kentucky to West Virginia parallel to the Big Sandy River. Brisbin (1976) notes that "the trail is well marked with existing stone cairns and carved boulders." Several stone structures are found near here, including a stone wall above The Forks of Hurricane, Wayne County, WV, and "The Old Fort" on a ridge overlooking Lost Creek, WV. Brisbin here notes that an apparent stone serpent effigy ("a wavy continuous line with snake-like configurations") can be found in Boyd County, KY.

Brisbin (1976) was the first to describe this serpent effigy - unfortunately, the photocopied article I have does not allow me to see the photo of the site. Sanders' (1991) article does include a nice drawing of the site, and notes that it is "unique for its much larger size, well-defined serpent outline, strikingly bifurcated tail, and associated stone ring, which may represent an egg." (Shades of the Adams Co., OH, serpent mound.)

Brisbin states: "The precipitous hill where the serpent is placed is 840 feet above mean sea level with the majority of the serpent's body at the 790 foot level... A ceremonial type semicircle of stone abuts a sandstone outcrop directly to the east of the center of the head and 24 feet below it on a narrow ledge... The head and the coil rise at a 20° incline to the crest of the ridge line and about 12 feet higher than the saddle bottom to the south. The tail portion declines from 40° to 90° in the last 100 feet. The tail points 73° to the west. The thin line of the tail comes to an end several hundred feet above a vertical cliff, but does not come near the edge as the nose and semicircle do. The head portion that is left intact is almost square in shape... and offset slightly from the body. The eastern tip of the nose was destroyed by a large bulldozer in the construction of a road along the ridge... The large coil is immediately behind the square-shaped head. The coil was determined by joining all of the high points noted in the mapping process with a line... There is a good possibility that a solar significance exists in alignment of the head and semicircle and of the tail, but that is another story."

Brisbin notes also that the sandstone forming the "serpent" was quarried locally, and that "in the head and coil portion, the stones are regularly piled to a height of 12 feet, but in the area of the semicircle and body, they are stacked about 4 feet high and 5 feet wide until they thin out in the tail."

Sanders gives a little more up-to-date information on the site. It is owned (at least when this article was published) by Ashland Oil, Inc. The company has established a 90 m buffer between the mound and a non-toxic landfill which serves an Ashland Oil refinery. The head of the serpent has been damaged by both pits excavated into the rock by unknown individuals and by the construction of a radio tower access road.

Nothing is known about who built this mound, or any of the other possible stone serpent effigies in Kentucky (Lawrence Co. and Menifee Co.). No artifacts or cultural remains were found at this site.

I am very interested in hearing about any further studies on this structure and whether any determination has been made on whether it is a true serpent effigy.

References:

Brisbin, L.G. 1976. The stone serpent mound in Kentucky: and other monuments. West Virginia Archaeologist 25: 26-36.

Sanders, S.L. 1991. The stone serpent mound of Boyd County, Kentucky: an investigation of a stone effigy structure. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 16(2): 272-284.

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