Marion progress., 1948-11-18
Legend Of Devils Ball Alley

Devils Ball Alley section Of Nc
!, Dowen County presented at re
cent meeting. Wishing to share
their pleasure in the narrative, the
story, taken from "Sketches Of Mas
sau" by Frank 1. Wilson was sub
mitted to The Marion Progress fol-
publication, and reads as follows:
"Devil's Ball Alley is situated ir
Mcdowell County, about ten miles
south Of Marion, the county seat
and on the road leading f m
Minersville to Marion, the road run.
ming along the brink of the creek
1t is a rocky precipice extending
about two hundred yards in length
and varying from about twenty to
hundred feet in height. Its base
is washed by a rapid stream, which
rolls along its rocky bed, sending up
a gurgling murnur far above the
highest part Of the Alley. Opposite
the precipice, beyond the stream, is
a high hill,' covered with heavy fruit
trees, and here and there large moss
covered rocks. Most dreary, lone
some, desolate place. At the top of
the precipice, and extending along
it is a nearby level strip from ten
to twenty feet wide above which
raises cone shaped hill to the
height Of two hundred feet with
large granite rocks over it's sides
and surface. These rocks are for
the most part round and when one
of them is torn from it's bed and
started down the slope it rolls with
accelerated velocity until it reaches
the stream at the base of the preci-
pice.
Singular place, singular name of
DEVILS Ball Alley-how secured?
In vain ask? Even the oldest inhabi-
tants know nothing of the origin of
the name. 1t has been Devils Ball
Alley ever since they could remem-
ber, but never heard of reason as
signed, why it should be so called.
"Not long ago I accidently fell
in company with an old Cherokee
Indian, one of the remaining frag-
ments of once powerful tribe-in
conversation with him, the tradition
which has been handed down from
remote ages to his tribe which gives
the cause of the origin of the name"
In Substance the Tale
Long before the white man came
to deprive the Indian of his hunting
ground Cherokees roamed unmolest-
ed through the mountains of West
ern Carolina, master Of all the re-
gions. Their arrows pierced the
bounding deer in the unbroken for
est-and warriors sang songs in the
twilight hours reposing before the
doors of their wigwams upon skins
spread by the hands Of dusky, dark
eyed maids of their tribe.
Kenocoonk was the chief of a tribe
that dwelt in the region about the
Ball Alley. His son, Wabajanick was
a young brave, who had already be-
come famous in the chase and in
the wars of his tribe, and to whom
all looked as their future chief when
his father would go on to the great
Hunting Grounds of the Spirit Land.
Many were the skins spread in his
Wigwam, and many were the scalps
of its enemies hung up against it's
walls. He was of an active and rest
less disposition ever seeking for ad-
venture and never contented except
when engaged in some daring en-
terprise.
Kenocoonk looked upon his son
with all a fathers pride and the
whole tribe regarded him with an
affection amounting to worship. The
old chief would often caution him
against exposing his life so reckless
ly, and beg him not to be so venture
some and daring; and at the same
time his aged bosom would swell
with emotion that told how proud
he was of his son. Pride engendered
by the very characteristic in the
bosom of that son-the only Off
spring of his beautiful and beloved
Majara, whose spirit had departed to
the home of her fathers when that
child was born. At length Wabaja-
nick disappeared. In vain was he
sought for throughout all the sur
rounding region. He was finally
given up as dead and his father
mourned for him in the anguish Of
bereaved heart. The whole tribe
was plunged into grief, and weeping
and wailing resounded on every
side. They supposed he had been
slain by a wild foe, or devoured by
some savage beast, or that his ad-
j venturesome spirit had led him
within some cave, or over some
precipice where he had perished.
| "I am a withered stalk" the old
I