Ottie Cline Powell

Who was Ottie Cline Powell?

Ottie Cline Powell was four years old and barefoot when he wandered away from his schoolhouse in Amherst County, Virginia while out gathering firewood in November, 1890. Despite an extensive search, his body was not found until the following spring, seven miles away, on the peak of Bluff Mountain, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, elevation 3,372 feet. It is believed, but not confirmed, that the boy, upon discovering he was lost, ran with all his might, and eventually collapsed with exhaustion and froze to death. Powell was found with the chestnuts he was given at the schoolhouse still in his stomach, undigested, leading his examiners to conclude that he died before he digested the chestnuts, which would imply that he lived for only a few hours after he wandered off.

The monument on Bluff mountain reads: