James and Kathy Harrell look over a sink hole that formed on their farm land recently.
© JAY HARE / DOTHAN EAGLE James and Kathy Harrell look over a sink hole that formed on their farm land recently.
A few feet to the right or left and James Harrell could have had a big problem on his hands.

Harrell discovered a 10-foot wide sink hole in his peanut field last week. Just a few days prior, a tractor had been plowing the field and just missed rolling over the area where the hole is located.

"If that tractor had been right here, it could have caved it," he said. "That would have been ugly."

This isn't Harrell's first experience with a sinkhole. About 40 years ago, Harrell drove a combine over a sinkhole on some farm property in Cottonwood.

"The frame of the combine was the only thing that kept it from falling all the way in the hole," he said. "I stepped out of the cab onto the roof and was on the ground."


Harrell's wife, Kathy, has been fascinated with the sinkhole since it appeared, and so have many others. A picture Kathy posted to Facebook of the photo has been viewed by 54,000 people, she said.

Harrell said sinkholes are more common in the Cottonwood area and that it's rare to find one in Rehobeth.

According to the Geological Survey of Alabama, sinkholes are most common in the northern and southernmost parts of the state.

"It's kind of scary because you read all of the stories out of Florida where they've swallowed houses," Kathy said. "I don't think it's that bad here."