Dana Olson of Jeffersonville, Indiana guided members Jim Leslie, Bill Barr,
Ken Zimmerman, Jack Burgess, Barbara Butler, Bill Cleaves and John Feiertag on a visit to
Prince Madoc locations in the Falls of the Ohio area on September 12, 2007.
Local amateur Tom Smolley and news reporter George Wright joined the group for both days. We viewed
Ross Island, where the Welch Hill top fort was located from Charleston State Park across
Fourteen Mile Creek. The island is in the process of ownership change to the Indiana &
was not open to the public. We ended the first afternoon at the Charleston Library to
view the Brandenburg Stone with the Welsh runes.
Next morning we were treated to coffee and donuts at the Southern Indiana Tourism Bureau by a friendly staff and the visited the Falls of the Ohio Interpretive Center where Madoc is officially regarded as a “legend”. They had a small Welsh exhibit that included replicas of the Roman coins found during construction of the bridge over the Ohio. A walk on the fossilized coral bed below the Center along a section of the dammed Ohio River was enjoyable. We then viewed sites around Jeffersonville where Welsh artifacts had been Dana Olson shows display at Center uncovered the past 300 years on our way to the old Clark farm (now residential) and the probable location of the ancient Welsh burial ground, now under the Ohio River.
The George Rogers Clark site and replica cabin high above the Ohio River was picturesque. All the Madoc landmarks were visited or viewed, such as Sand Island and the debarking spot of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. At appropriate stops Dana Olson recited excerpts from his book of the events that took place there.
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