One of the most enduring urban legends of the Appalachian Trail is the story of Ottie Cline Powell, in Lexington, Virginia. Powell was only four years old when, on November 9, 1890, he walked from his one-room school near the Powell farm into the forest near Bluff Mountain to collect fallen branches for kindling for the pot-bellied classroom stove. It seemed winter had arrived early during that fall of that year, when the first snow of the season fell the previous week. Miss Nannie Gilbert was the only teacher, and when the sky clouded on that Monday, she sent her class to fetch more wood.
Ottie Cline Powell was one of the smallest pupils in the class, as he would turn 5 soon, and marched outdoors with his classmates, but Powell never returned. When no one at the schoolhouse could find him, Miss Gilbert sent her students home to ask their parents and neighbors for help. Soon, entire families were walking through the mountainous landscape. Their calls for Ottie Powell went unanswered, and in the evening, rain moved into the area, followed by an ice storm.
Newspapers in Central Virginia carried the story of the little boy lost in the mountains. Over the next few days and weeks, hundreds of volunteers came and went, combing the area surrounding the schoolhouse in wider and wider circles. No one thought of scaling the rocky old animal and Indian trails leading up Bluff Mountain. No one could have imagined a small child with the tenacity to reach the mountain top.
Winter came, and snow upon snow covered the mountains. Reverend Powell had posted a reward for his son’s safe return in The Lynchburg Virginian, but no one came forward to claim it. There was almost no hope for the child’s return. Then, quite by accident, Ottie Cline was found deceased on April 5, 1891.
Since then, hikers along this section of the Appalachian Trail have reported seeing a little boy wandering the campgrounds looking for something, but never actually finding it.
Written By John G. Clark Jr