Tom Hendrix died two years ago today, but the wall he built to honor his Yuchi Indian great-great-grandmother lives on

Tom Hendrix in 2014 (NYT photo by Robert Rausch)

Two years ago today, Tom Hendrix died at 87, and The Rural Blog failed to take note. We regret that, and are trying to make up for it now, mainly because he built what is probably the largest completed memorial to a Native American: a winding stone wall to honor his great-great grandmother, a Yuchi named Te-lah-nay who was forced to take the Trail of Tears' southern route in the 1830s but found her way back to the northwest corner of Alabama, made a life for herself and left a legacy.

After Hendrix took early retirement when an automobile plant in Muscle Shoals closed, he met a Yuchi woman who told him, “We shall all pass this earth. Only stones remain. We honor our ancestors with stones. That's what you should do,” Anne Kristoff reported for Alabama News Center. He spent the next 25 years building the Wachahpi Commemorative Stone Wall in a wooded tract on his land. He told The New York Times in 2014, “I wore out three trucks, 22 wheelbarrows, 3,700 pairs of gloves, three dogs and one old man.”

Hendrix did little to publicize his work, saying that any visitors were meant to find it, but he was mentioned in the 2013 documentary "Muscle Shoals," and the Times story called his work "the largest unmortared wall in the United States." The wall "has drawn a multitude of visitors from every state in the union and from many foreign countries," said Hendrix's obituary in the Florence Times Daily. "The book he wrote about Te-lah-nay’s journey, If the Legends Fade, has sold more than 17,000 copies. He loved nothing better than greeting visitors at the Wall, telling his great-great-grandmother’s story, and answering questions. He was a gifted storyteller, and he loved people."

New York Times map

We knew that, because we visited Hendrix and the wall in 2006, on the strong recommendation of his cousin, Rudy Abramson, who had helped start the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog. In 2008, after Rudy died in an accident at his home in Reston, Va., Tom came to his memorial service at the Newseum. So, we're doubly sorry that we didn't know about his death, but happy to report that his son Trace welcomes visitors to the wall from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The wall is also open to visitors during those hours Monday through Friday. It's at 13890 County Road 8, Florence, Ala., just off the Natchez Trace Parkway, about four miles south of the Tennessee line.
--Al Cross