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| Aerial view of the Temple Mound at Moundville Archaeological Park in Alabama, the setting of "Digging Up Bones." |
Tourism Attraction: Moundville Archaeological Park
Location: Moundville , Alabama
Photos: provided by Moundville Archaeological Park
Contest Co-sponsored By: Southeastern Literary Tourism Initiative and the University of Alabama Museums.
The winner of the Inaugural SELTI Writing
Contest is the short story “Digging Up Bones” by Kathryn C. Lang. As promised, the winning story has been published online here on SELTI with a companion tourism guide related to the settings (story begins after the official contest results found below). The Inaugural
SELTI Writing Contest was the nation’s first competition that challenged
writers to compose short stories designed for directly promoting tourism. The contest
guidelines established the setting of the stories as the historic Native
American city of Moundville
Moundville was a city of large man-made mounds that thrived on the banks of theBlack Warrior
River centuries ago. The ruins were found abandoned by the first European settlers in the area. The site in Alabama North America 800
years ago.
Moundville was a city of large man-made mounds that thrived on the banks of the
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| A volunteer participates in the Moundville Plaza Project, an archaeology dig. |
The Inaugural SELTI Writing Contest
showcases how fiction set in real attractions is the ideal vehicle for
promoting tourism. Writers approached the task from many different creative
angles, demonstrating how highly adaptable tourism fiction can be in promoting real attractions. With the global economy in such disarray now, tourism
fiction is an especially innovative tool that can capture tourism dollars
through the powerful drama of stories set in real places.
The idea is simple: set an engaging story
in real attractions and then provide readers with a convenient companion guide on how to visit
the settings. Fiction provides the flexibility to adapt dramatic
scenes to any real location. Most book lovers would love to enhance their
reading experience by visiting the places they read about. This allows readers
to become tourists by offering them a chance to literally step inside the stories they enjoy.
These days, modern e-reading
devices like the Kindle, iPad, and Nook can even allow readers to click
on tourism links from inside a book. USA Today recently featured this innovation in novels that allows e-readers to instantly browse full-color related tourism
websites from novels—if publishers
include them. Tourism fiction has also moved into the realm of the screenplay
with the development of the first movie with a tourism commercial inside the film, Beautiful
Little Fools.
The marketing brilliance of “Digging Up
Bones” caught my attention within the first few lines. Great stories usually
involve a surprise, and this short story immediately stood out with a highly
creative plot concept.
The world has changed since the 1930s, even in a field focused on the past like archaeology. There is a new level of respect for the burial sites of Native Americans, and that is why there are no images of Native American bones in this story. Although excavations still occur at Moundville, all archaeology work is regulated by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990. To learn about this interesting development in archaeology, please visit the NAGPRA link above. Also, to get a sense of what a modern dig involves, please visit this blog about recent excavations at Moundville conducted as part of the Moundville Plaza Project.
After reading “Digging Up Bones,” please
check out the Tourism Guide below to learn how to visit the real Moundville.
The many photos in this feature are all from the actual Moundville site and were
contributed by Moundville Archaeological Park
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| Aerial view of Moundville Archaeological Park today with the Temple Mound in the foreground and the Plaza Mound in center. |
When you walk through the
grassy plaza of Moundville
Official Results of Inaugural SELTI Writing Contest
First Place: "Digging Up Bones" by Kathryn C. Lang
Second Place: "Chunkey" by Louise Herring-Jones
Third Place: "The Serpent's Curse" by Michael S. Offutt, Sr.
Fourth Place: "Legend of Arimatha" by Summer Cato
“Digging Up Bones”
by Kathryn C. Lang
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| A doctoral candidate works on an excavation project at Moundville. |
“What did you find?” The young intern could tell her partner was surprised by something down in the hole. He had stopped digging. “Sam?” It bothered her even more that he was not answering.
Sam held
up a piece of cloth with a stick. “I am going to go out on a limb and say that
this is NOT part of the original burial site.”
The young
intern looked down into the hole to try and get a better look at the cloth. The
design was not one they would have expected. “I think you’re right.” She dug
through her bag and pulled out her phone. This would put a kink in their
research plans for sure.
***
Official
word was that the cloth had been blown into the area by the tornadoes that tore
through the community the spring of 2011. None of those that had seen the area
were buying the official story.
Marvin
Johnston has spent several years working his way around law enforcement. He had
wanted to work for the state, and investigations only made the job more
intriguing. His first official chance to prove his abilities came with a call
to visit Moundville. He knew the area but had never realized that Tuscaloosa held more than
a famous college. “It’s amazing what can be hiding in your backdoor.”
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| Interior of the Jones Archaeological Museum at Moundville. |
They
parked the car near the museum, walked around the trail, and passed the Temple Mound Alabama and not some
place in South America . The veteran had only
been to the park one time before with his son for the festival, but this was a
place that needed to be visited more than once to be truly appreciated.
The park
had been closed since the interns made their discovery. It would be too
difficult to keep the details of the investigation under control with a bunch
of college students working through spring break and tourists wandering the
mounds. Even getting it closed down as fast as they had still let the rumors
fly. They crossed through some woods and found the site they were supposed to
be investigating.
“What do
we have?” Marvin stood next to the veteran officer but was the first to speak.
The officer looked at him and smiled again. He remembered what it was like to
be that eager, so he did not say anything.
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| An excavation trench at Moundville. |
The man
in the hole looked up. “Most of these bones will prove original to the site.
This particular spot was first uncovered about two decades back, but it is a
minor site and was left alone.” He pointed to some bones partially covered by
pieces of material. “This is what brought you guys out today. I will have to
get it back to lab to see exactly what it means.” He pointed to the hole in the
skull. “I would bet a week’s worth of lunches that we have a murder here.”
“Just let
us know when you get something definitive.” Another smile from the veteran went
unnoticed by Marvin. “What should we do next?”
Now he
wanted the veteran’s opinion, and that brought another smile. “Well, we have
two decades of research about who has access to this area of the park and who
may have been working in the area.” He looked down at the man in the hole. “Can
you give us a timeline at all?”
“Well, I
would have to say that based on the material and its decay that these bones
have probably been in this space for almost the full two decades.”
Cold
cases were hard – but cold cases that had never been investigated in the first
place were often impossible. Their only hope would be that the lab guys would
be able to identify the body. Until then, they could talk to the professor
who had been in charge of digging that hole in the first place.
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| A professor directs students at the Moundville Plaza Project dig site. |
“I
remember that dig. Nothing sticks in the memory like a month of wasted time.”
The professor had retired, but still lived in town. He had plenty of time to
visit with the officers. “The kids were so excited when we uncovered the burial
area. I almost hated to tell them that the officials wanted their funding to go
to a dig that produced more important sites.”
“Why
wasn’t that site important?” Marvin had taken the lead again, and the veteran
smiled.
“It was
important.” The professor sat forward. “All discoveries like that are
important. You never know what you are going to learn.”
“Then why
did the officials tell you to move on?”
“I argued
with them for days, but ultimately they wanted us to find more of the burials
related to the leaders and not the followers. I wasted a month because of a
bunch of class envy silliness. All of it is important.” The professor was
talking to himself, but he had provided some interesting possibilities to
follow.
The
officers tracked down the officials who had funded the dig, but it left them
empty. The company went bankrupt the year after the dig, and there were no
records of who would have made decisions about the dig available.
“This
will not be an open and shut case.” Marvin shook his head, but the veteran
smiled.
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| Aerial view of Moundville Archaeological Park showing all the mounds surrounding the plaza. |
“There
are never any open and shut cases in the real world. They all take some
patience, some creativity, and some luck.” He knew from experience that the
body they had found in the mound would probably take more luck than anything
else.
A trip
back to Moundville would be the best place to start their new investigation of
the murder of Jane Doe. They were looking for anything that might help them
identify her or understand what might have happened. The normal tools would not
be much assistance this late in the search. They carried a metal detector. The
veteran let Marvin put his eager energy to work.
He spent
several hours sweeping the area, and that left the veteran some time to take in
the full site of the mounds. They scattered around the field and looked odd in
their home. He closed his eyes for a moment and enjoyed the breeze that flowed
so easily through the area. It took him back to that day with his son. It
seemed like a lifetime ago, and maybe it had been. It was the beeping of the
metal detector that got his attention.
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| A University of Alabama anthropology student uses a metal detector at the Moundville Plaza Project. |
“I found
something.” It took a shovel to dig down, but they found a wallet and some
other items buried in a grave. Marvin opened the wallet. “It belongs to a
Leslie Jones, and Miss Jones was twenty-seven according to her Alabama license and from
. . . no way! This says she was from Big Springs.” Marvin was from Big Springs.
“What are those odds?”
“Sometimes
they are better than you think.”
***
The lab
called. “I can confirm that the victim was a female in her mid to late
twenties. Besides that bit of information, I am not going to be any help.” He
shook his head and motioned around the room. “She’s gone.”
“What do
you mean she’s gone?”
“I mean
someone came in and took her and had her cremated along with any evidence that
we might find.”
“But you
saw the bullet hole.” The veteran let Marvin do the arguing. He knew from
experience that arguing would not get them any closer to the answers they
needed.
“I saw a
hole. I needed more tests to determine how the hole arrived in that particular
location . . . and when for that matter.”
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| The annual Moundville Native American Festival is held each fall. Check the museum website for dates and events. |
Marvin
paced around the room. “Where does that leave us?”
The
veteran spoke up. “He will have to label the cause of death as unknown. That
means that without some reasonable suspicion of foul play we are done.”
Marvin
looked hurt. “But the wallet?”
“The
wallet is just a wallet. You need to let this go.”
They
closed the file on the Jane Doe and included the wallet for Leslie Jones.
***
The
veteran found himself at Moundville after it opened back up to the public.
He wandered around the trails and then climbed up to the top of the Temple Mound
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| Men participate in historic traditions at the annual Moundville Native American Festival. |
A group
of warriors performed on the stage back then, not far from where he was
standing now. He remembered that their chants and movements filled his own
heart with power - or hope. The wind blew against his face and he imagined that
it carried their voices now. The same power or hope began to well up inside him
again. The voices were telling him to keep digging.
He opened
his eyes and looked around. The voices on the wind were right. He would keep
digging, closed file or not. He would keep digging until he found the truth.
TOURISM GUIDE
by Patrick Miller
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| The famous Stone Duck Bowl recently returned to Moundville from the Smithsonian. |
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Moundville still offers year-round tours, but the largest
public event is the Moundville Native American Festival held each fall, when
experts demonstrate the skills and techniques once central to Moundville
life. Please visit this link to Moundville Archaeological Park to learn more about everything Moundville has to offer.
I hope this SELTI feature has opened up a new opportunity for touring a unique place. Please browse through the many features in the Stories By Month section in the top left to discover fascinating places to visit through fiction and real life all over the South. For those curious about how this first contest was set up, please review the Official Rules of the Inaugural SELTI Writing Contest.
Also, anyone interested in visiting Moundville would also be interested in visiting the several nearby cultural attractions of the University of Alabama Museums, which first discovered the SELTI project through the Alabama Tourism Department. The Alabama Tourism Department and the Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports Commission both offer wonderful local guides on where to stay, where to eat, and what to do while visiting the area.
Also, anyone interested in visiting Moundville would also be interested in visiting the several nearby cultural attractions of the University of Alabama Museums, which first discovered the SELTI project through the Alabama Tourism Department. The Alabama Tourism Department and the Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports Commission both offer wonderful local guides on where to stay, where to eat, and what to do while visiting the area.
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| Kathryn C. Lang |
You can learn more about Kathryn and read more of her
writings by visiting www.kathrynlang.com.
Her non-fiction books are available through most major online retailers. RUN,
the debut novel for Kathryn Lang, introduces some of the characters found
in “Digging Up Bones,” and can be purchased for electronic download exclusively
through the Kindle Store and in print from most major online retailers at
the end of May. Please read the interview with Kathryn below. Kathryn is also a columnist for the Lakeside Post in Guntersville, Alabama. Please read one of her short columns here: Making A Path to Survival.
Other ways to connect with Kathryn:
A Special Thanks to the Judges
From the University of Alabama's
Creative Campus
From the University of Alabama's
Creative Campus
Dr. Hank Lazer
Professor of English, Director of Creative Campus
Dr. Michael Martone
Professor of English (creative writing)
Alexis Clark
Creative Campus Coordinator, Adjunct Professor, Human Environmental Science
I would also like to thank Dr. Bill Bomar, Director of Moundville Archaeological Park, and Kelli Harris, Development Director for the University of Alabama Museums. Both Kelli and Bill were instrumental in getting this project completed. I would also like to express deep appreciation to the four finalists in this contest who took the time to help promote this wonderful park through their writing. Each one of these writers has the skill to effectively promote real places through their imaginative fiction. I look forward to following what other places they write about.
—Patrick Miller
Patrick Miller: There were so many different directions to take
when writing a story about Moundville for the contest. What inspired you to
write about a murder investigation?
Kathryn Lang: “Digging Up Bones” grew from another short
story I wrote recently on my website. That short story developed when a friend
read my novel, RUN, and wanted to know more about the backstory of one of the
lead characters. Moundville holds so much history and intrigue on its own that
I thought setting part of the story in that location would be a perfect fit.
There are many unanswered questions in the story. Have you
considered developing "Digging Up Bones" into a full-length novel?
“Digging Up Bones” will be the introduction to the third
novel in the Big Springs series. The second novel should be available by
summer. All of the questions may not be answered, yet, but readers will begin
to understand the who and the why of this particular situation.
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| Interior of Jones Archaeological Museum, showing life-size representations of a Native American prince preparing to marry. |
What made the deepest impression on you at Moundville as a
tourist?
Our family visits Moundville once a year, and each time I am
overwhelmed by the impressive size of the mounds. Climbing to the top of the Temple Mound
The first year we visited the park, a group of students were
working on a site. It helped create the structure for “Digging Up Bones.”
Tell us about your other writing endeavors and what directions you
plan to take your writing in the future?
I have been working as a content writer on the internet for
the last eight years and moved into writing magazine articles and a newspaper
column during that time. The column I write for The Lakeside Post in
Guntersville has inspired me to release my columns in gift book form, Journey
through Reflections. Practical Proverbs, a non-fiction book about finding your
life of peace and joy, was inspired by a women’s bible study. Even my novels
are crafted around the experiences of my life.
I hope that my writing career continues down the path of
providing words that inspire and encourage others – through fiction and
non-fiction alike.
Hear Kathryn Lang interviewed on Alabama Public Radio after she wins the 2012 SELTI Tourism Fiction Award, presented by Senator Clay Scofield, Chairman of the Alabama Senate Tourism and Marketing Committee.
Hear Kathryn Lang interviewed on Alabama Public Radio after she wins the 2012 SELTI Tourism Fiction Award, presented by Senator Clay Scofield, Chairman of the Alabama Senate Tourism and Marketing Committee.
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