Kanawha Madonna

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The Kanawha Madonna is a wood carving of a person holding an eastern forest buffalo calf or goat. It is one of few better examples of Native American statuette-like wood carvings of North American wooden artifacts associated with prehistoric Native Americans in West Virginia. It was discovered in the cliff-heights above the lower New River (Kanawha River) in 1897. The statuette was reportedly found in a rock shelter in Kanawha County.

The West Virginia Native American were known by early colonists to build stone wall enclosed villages on these ridges, perhaps an element of Fort Ancient culture. Recent sites and studies have shown this culture to keep domesticated turkeys and pet dogs.^[1] A historical Native American tribe has not been associated with these cultures in West Virginia. It is not clear when the "Kanawhans" began milking their unique goat, thought to have been brought to them by the Spanish Basque colony of 500 at the Carolinas in the early 1500s. The 16th century Conquistador are known to have explored for copper and gold along the Appalachian Mountains during the 16th century. A Spanish fort is documented along the New York and Pennsylvania border west of the upper Allegheny Mountains by 1588 and can be found placed on early maps. These ideas are among those searching for an explanation.

A pseudo science encircles it with thoughts about it being much older than later. The Portuguese and the Cork Harbour Irish (their Viking overlords) were also known to leave goats on islands for their future provision during the period of exploration and early Atlantic fishing voyages. The ancient Cherokee of the region had trails to the Chesapeake Bay before 1570 when the bay was called "Bahia de Santa Maria" by the Jesuit Mission called Ajacan near Jamestown, Virginia, today. After much scrutiny, it is thought to have been carved from late antiquity. The "Kanawha Madonna" is on display at the West Virginia Culture Center in Charleston, West Virginia.