History
Black Warrior Town was one of the northernmost settlements of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. The town center was situated on the eastern side of the confluence of the Sipsey and Mulberry Forks of the Black Warrior River. Located at the border of Choctaw, Chickasaw and Creek territory, Black Warrior Town was a place where members of these tribes and the Cherokee came together to trade and rest from hunting. Current research suggests there were four smaller villages surrounding Black Warrior Town.
The inhabitants of Black Warrior Town mysteriously escaped the Tennessee Militia in 1813 when then General Andrew Jackson ordered their village destroyed. Members of the militia included then Colonel John Coffee and the legendary Davie Crockett. They arrived late into the night and watched the town’s people carry on their business. The plan was to do as they had done before, attack at dawn.
However, the young Creek chief, Oceochemathla, was prepared. The next morning when the militia entered the town, every man, woman, and child was gone. Fires still burned. Food sat uneaten. John Coffee ordered the town burned. Local legend has it that the members of Black Warrior Town made a vow to return to “The Forks.” Many local families claim a connection to these long forgotten people.
Thanks to new information given to us by the late Roy Pounds, we now know that almost all of the Creeks were gone from the village before Coffee and Crockett arrived. The elderly chief, Black Warrior, and four or five other elders stayed behind to keep the fires burning. They milled about that night to give the impression that the village was occupied. At dawn all the villagers, except for these old men, were already safe near present day Cordova. Chief Black Warrior was shot and killed. That evening the Creeks watched as smoke from their burning village drifted past them on the river.