Alabama Welsh Society calls for the return of Madoc's historic marker

The Alabama Welsh Society wants a plaque reinstated marking the supposed arrival of Prince Madoc ap Owain in the U.S. three centuries before Columbus. The legend has it their two ships dropped anchor at what is now Mobile Bay, Alabama, in 1169 or 1170.

The prince and his brother were said to be escaping the turmoil of 12th Century Wales following the death of their father, King Owain of Gwynedd.

The Madoc legend was taken up by a local chapter of the group Daughters of the American Revolution, who are said to have paid for the plaque to be erected at Fort Morgan, Mobile Bay, in 1953. The plaque read: "In memory of Prince Madoc, a Welsh explorer, who landed on the shores of Mobile Bay in 1170 and left behind, with the Indians, the Welsh language".