Legends associated with Fort Mountain tell of the moon-eyed people and of Prince Madoc of Wales. Cherokee traditions say the moon-eyed people inhabited the Southern Highlands before the Cherokee arrived and were unable to see during certain phases of the moon; during one of these phases, the Creek people annihilated them. Some believe these people built the mountain fortifications. Other Cherokee versions describe fair-skinned, blond-haired, blue-eyed people who occupied the mountain areas until Cherokee invaders dispersed them, while some tales say they could see in the dark but were nearly blind in daylight, and other legends identify them as albinos. Delaware Indian tradition tells of a migration eastward from the far west and an encounter with the Allegewi, a very tall, robust, light-skinned people; after prevailing with Iroquois support, some surviving Allegewi went to Cherokee territory and were remembered as Tlvni Kula, or moon-eyed people, who were tall, fair-skinned, light-haired, grey-eyed, and carried strange weapons and tools. Welsh and Cherokee legends also connect Fort Mountain with Prince Madoc, who Welsh tradition says first sailed to Mobile Bay in 1170 AD, returned to Wales, then sailed again to the New World with numerous settlers and never returned. In this account, they built stone forts including the one on Fort Mountain, fought the local Cheyenne, and moved west around 1186 AD. In 1782, the ninety-year-old Cherokee chief Oconostota told John Seiver of Tennessee that the Welsh had crossed the Great Water, landed near the mouth of the Alabama River near Mobile, and built the fortifications in this country. Legend attributes three stone forts to Madoc's people: one near DeSoto Falls, Alabama, said to resemble Dolwyddelan Castle in Wales, then this fortification on Fort Mountain, and later works in the Chattanooga area and at the Duck River near Manchester, Tennessee, now known as the Old Stone Fort.