The following article is part one is a series examining the history versus the myths of the region.

At times the line between fact and myth can become blurred as a result of any number of reasons; a story passed down through generations can become skewed, a fact can be embellished to make it seem more interesting, or details or forgotten and replaced by hearsay.  Indeed, justification for an event or series of events can force fact into legend or can be used to create legend out of the void.  Regardless and for whatever reason we choose to accept myth rather than reality the real harm can be that the character of our past can be lost in fairy tale when, in actuality, the truth can be just as fascinating.  One case in point is the origin of European discovery of America.

It is known and documented that the explorations into the Americas by Alonso Alvarez de Pineda and that of Panfilo de Narvaez were the first to make it to modern day Alabama.  What’s more, the expedition of Hernando de Soto was the first to explore the interior of our state.  Nevertheless, the idea that these men were not the earliest to investigate our state and that Christopher Columbus was not the first European to venture into the waters of the Americas has long been posited by various writers. There have been and are those that fully support the idea that a Welsh explorer named Madoc first set foot in Alabama three centuries before the epic maiden voyage of Columbus.

Madoc, often referred to as Prince Madoc in much of the literature perpetuating the Welshman’s legend, has been linked to the European discovery of America for the past 500 years in texts ranging from a 1584 history of Wales to a travel account written by Englishman Sir Thomas Herbert as a means if underscoring the early English presence in North America.  The fable places Prince Madoc in Wales as one of the many sons of King Oswain Gwynedd upon whose death in 1169 plunged Wales into a massive war of accession.  Supposedly Madoc fled the violence and sailed west with a group of followers.  Based on the many variations of the tale he landed in the Americas anywhere from northern Canada to South America.  Of course, the version that is most interesting is the one that claims Madoc came ashore in North America near present-day Fort Morgan.

Once in North America legend has it that Madoc and his group travelled into the interior of Alabama and beyond.  They were supposed to have ventured up the rivers systems into Kentucky and then finally into the Missouri River valley where they intermarried with the Mandan Indians that lived in the region.

As previously mentioned the legend was given life initially as a means of supporting English political and economical expansion on a global scale.  Later patriotic Welshmen used the story as a point of pride.

While the tale is centuries old it gained new life in the 1950s and 1960s through the passionate efforts of amateur historian Hatchett Chandler while he worked at Fort Morgan.  Chandler, himself an enigma, came to Fort Morgan in 1944 destitute and without focus in his personal life.  It is believed he had recently left Texas and his wife to come back to the state of his birth.  Chandler’s past, based on what little had been written about, is as cloudy as that of Madoc.  There is precious little information available in reference to Chandler’s early life after he left Alabama for Texas.  Once he returned to Alabama, however, the pieces began to fall together a bit more as he became a very vocal supporter of the conservation of Fort Morgan.

In an Alabama Review article from July 1987 author John D. Fair explained Chandler as follows:

His approach to history exhibited both the best and worst characteristics of the dedicated amateur.  He made history meaningful to masses of people whom those trained in the scientific mode could never reach, but in doing so he also muddled the public mind with dubious facts and highly ethnocentric interpretations.

Chandler encouraged the retelling of Madoc’s story as a means of promoting Fort Morgan.  It is apparent that he resurrected the Welshman’s landing at Mobile Point because he loved the area and believed in its historic significance.  And as a result he did indeed give the historic fort a voice.  He even worked with the Virginia Cavalier Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to place a monument to Madoc on the fort site.  That monument was unveiled at Fort Morgan in 1953 but has since been moved to DAR headquarters in Mobile.

The story of Madoc is intriguing and would be an earth shattering historic revelation if there were substantiated fact to support it.  But there is not any and may well never be corroboration.  However, there is well known factual data surrounding the actual exploration of this area that is every bit as fascinating as the Madoc story and one that we will delve into next week.