PATRON + Oscar Ridley and the lost silver mine in Jackson County, Alabama

How interesting. I’ve been to Russell Cave several times, but didn’t know that piece of history.

Ridley, wondering about an inheritance in that there silver mine. =D

Karrin Ragan Ridley John Ridley LM John Ridley Stacie McAllister

I went to Russel years ago….Billy contact me about the relatives marker if you have any information.

Wonderful story! Thanks for posting it. My wife’s mother grew up near Russell Cave and told stories about it to her children. She and friends would walk to Russell Cave from where they lived near a smaller spring-fed cave at Cave Spring, then later from Orme, TN, when her father went to work in the coal mines there. Her mother’s father was a lumber man and then a coal miner, and his grave is at Doran’s Cove cemetery across from the main entrance to Russell Cave park. We visit the Park and other Jackson County sites whenever we can (we were in Bridgeport only yesterday to look for some of her family’s gravesites at Mt. Carmel Cemetery and to stop by the antique store downtown.)

My great-grandfather! Thanks for posting. I’ve never heard this story.

I know a man who is nearly 80 who told me of seeing the Cherokee silver mine as a boy with his grandfather, a Cherokee Indian. Tn River covered the entrance when they flooded the valley.

The picture at the top looks to be a Kennamer reunion at Cathedral Caverns.

Yet another neat tale about our state’s history. Thanks.

I dug the silver mine completely out years ago. Sold the silver and bought gold then buried the gold. Now I cannot remember where I buried it?

Taylor Giddiens