By now you may think you've heard it all - North Africans floated across the Atlantic centuries ago with knowledge of pyramid building and that's why we have the Incan ruins that look like they should be in Egypt. Then there's the legend that Vikings built a trading center on the New England coast that rivaled Dublin, their "black hole" on the Liffey. Historians doubt both of these legends, but a third, the amazing tale of Madoc and his 12th century mountain fortress in North Georgia just might pan out as true.

Eight miles east of Chatsworth, Georgia, and 18 miles east of Dalton, in a heavily wooded part of the Chattahoochie National Forest stands Fort Mountain, elevation 2760 feet above sea level. Near the top of the mountain is the ruin of a 1000-foot-long stone fortress wall believed to have been constructed by medieval Welsh warriors who arrived in the New World, probably around Mobile, in the mid-12th century. Their leader was Prince Madoc and the local Cherokee natives allied with him and their peoples intermarried.

Perhaps we'd like for the legend of Madoc to be true because at least 10% of the people living in South Carolina can trace their ancestry to Wales. Since March 1st is celebrated around the English-speaking world as St. David's Day in honor of the patron saint of Wales, we're entitled to celebrate the "Amazing Tale of Madoc" as if it were true - and it may be verified by scholars some day.

Folklore fanciers know already the route taken by the 18th century Welsh who came into upstate Carolina. Everyone knows the Welsh Neck of the Upper-Pee-Dee is ground zero for Wales in the New World. From Cheraw and Society Hill all the way to Conway in Horry county there are Joneses, Pughs, Williamsons, Robertsons, and Johnsons aplenty. They're fiercely independent sons of the soil. And they keep the devil on the run with their hard-shell Baptist ways.

However, the Welsh of South Carolina who recently celebrated March 1 as the feast of their patron saint, David, are not descended from the legendary Prince Madoc. If legend can be believed, the medieval Welsh migrated west and became part of the curious Mandan tribe of the Missouri and Knife River valley area. These native Americans were noted for light skin complexion and hazel eyes.

Numerous linguists over the years have spent time in Mandan villages recording their dialect. One European scholar, Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied in Germany, traveled to the American midwest in 1832 with the Swiss painter Karl Bodmer expressly to investigate the ancient legends of Welsh-speaking native Americans. There had long been rumors that Jesuit priests returning to Spain from the New World had encountered natives that had knowledge of both Hebrew and European speech.

Lewis and Clark made it a point of their grand western excursion to search out the Mandan tribe on the west bank of the Missouri. Stories were then circulating that a remnant of the old Welsh had intermarried with the Mandan and that light-skinned natives out west worshiped a leather-bound Holy scripture written in the Welsh language. The light-skinned natives were located, but no such Holy scripture ever surfaced.

What Lewis and Clark did note, however, was the curious round wicker fishing boats, currans, that the natives used on the Missouri. These boats were quite similar to the ones used by Welsh fishermen. The American painter of the wild west George Catlin left us a canvas of the "Bull Boats of the Mandan," showing the curious-designed round boats that are indigenous to the Welsh and the Irish. Catlin also noted that at least some of the Mandan could speak the Welsh language. An outbreak of smallpox in the West wiped out most of the Mandans in the 1840s, and the last known Mandan tribesman died in 1971.

So prevalent in English literature is the notion of Welsh settlers in the New World prior to Columbus that Robert Southey, an early 19th century London writer, composed an epic poem entitled "Madoc," to celebrate the New World exploits of this ancient Welshman.

Southey's poem recounts how " On the death of Owen Gwynetg, King of North Wales, A.D. 1169, his children disputed the succession."

A war of Welsh brothers ensued, and Madoc fled the country in search of the lands that existed then only in Viking tales. Madoc allegedly commanded a fleet of ships that hugged the coast until it made its way around Florida. Somewhere near Mobile, Madoc and his hearties went ashore. The daughters of the American Revolution have erected a memorial to Madoc in the Mobile area.

The Welsh wore brass or bronze armor and constructed advanced stone fortifications, the most well-preserved is the Fort Mountain one east of Dalton and Chatsworth, Georgia. Near the crest of the mountain, there remains a very old quarried stone wall of approximately 1000 feet in length. It's obvious that the wall was a part of a more elaborate defense plan with huts or structures inside the perimeter.

The Cherokee told early colonial settlers that long ago the white man had settled peaceably amongst them and had intermarried with the natives. To this date no solid proof exists beyond the stone wall in Georgia and in northeastern Alabama.

Near Ft. Payne, Alabama, there is an elaborate network of caves carved into the stone side of a small mountain that predates anything the native Americans could have done. Inside the cave tunnels are said to be paintings with Welsh inscriptions.

In 1799 Tennessee Governor John Sevier recorded that Indians told of Welsh warriors being here long ago. Sevier also records that six skeletons were unearthed near these caves and that the skeletons wore brass armor with the Welsh insignia.

It's been said that the caves are so designed that two-score armed men could defend the place from thousands of invaders.

The story goes that the Welsh and the Cherokee eventually parted ways and warred against each other. Welsh warriors migrated into the midwest and became a part of the Sioux-Mandan nation. Spain's explorer, Hernando de Soto, recorded an interaction with these strange light-skinned natives with European ways.

Over the centuries the legend of Madoc and his wild Welshmen has been relegated to myth and fanciful thinking on the part of Anglophiles. But the archaeologists may soon prove again that it's not the paper-trail historians who reign supreme in the world of history! At any rate, raise a toast for the Welsh and wish them happy St. David's Day.

(Dr. Thomas B. Horton is a history teacher at Porter-Gaud School. He lives in the Old Village of Mount Pleasant). Visit his Web site at www.historyslostmoments.com.)