USA > Kentucky > The prehistoric men of Kentucky : a history of what is known of their lives and habits, together with a description of their implements and other relics and of the tumuli which have earned for them the designation of Mound builders > Part 5
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A peninsula formed by a horseshoe bend in a river, surrounded by precipitous bluffs, or a sharp spur with abrupt sides running out from high bluffs, were favorite places for the erection of fortifications. This was usually done by throwing up a line of earth or stone embankments from cliff to cliff across the narrow neck of the river bend, or where a projecting spur or promontory was the site to be strengthened, by constructing an embankment and ditch at its junction with the mainland. As a rule earth was used in forming these walls, but there are a number in the State made of stone. Sometimes moats were dug in front of the parapets, and occasionally these" occur both within and without the walls. The present condi- tion of some of these moats shows that they were dug to considerable depth, probably as much as fifteen feet, hav- ing a width ranging from fifteen to thirty feet. In Central
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Kentucky a clay, which forms so large a part of the soil, would render it easy to make them watertight. Here and there are evidences that a drawbridge or movable span was used in crossing the moat to the inner part of the fortification, but these are merely indications, and there is no absolute certainty as to the actual modes of in- gress and egress. Examples of this method of fort-building are to be seen in Hickman, Fulton, Barren, Allen, Boone, Bourbon, Edmonson, Green, Hopkins, Caldwell, Larue, Madison, and Warren counties. Unfortunately many of the remains in these and other counties, by the constant wear of the plow, are being rapidly effaced, while some have entirely disappeared. But here and there are exam- ples, remarkably well preserved, and if untouched by the inroads of agricultural cultivation will stand for centuries to come as memorials of a general and protracted struggle for the possession of Kentucky, long before the white man crossed the Alleghany Mountains or even saw the shores of the Western World.
Some forts were made by a complete surrounding wall of earth or stone, where the topography of the land did not eliminate the necessity of fortifying one or more of the sides. Many earthen enclosures, by their loca- tion, size, and structural characteristics, indicate that they were not designed as places of defense, and we can only conjecture as to the purpose of the ancient Kentuckian in erecting them. Some have been termed ceremonial or religious enclosures, because of the part they are supposed to have played in the tribal life of these people. It is not the writer's purpose to attempt to describe or even locate all of the ancient fortifications and enclosures known in Kentucky, but rather to point out and describe a few
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that will serve as types of methods of defensive warfare practiced by these people.
On page 51 is a sketch of what is known as O'Byam's Fort, in Hickman County. The drawing is made from one in the work of Doctor Cyrus Thomas on "Mound Explorations," published in the Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. The following description is also taken from that work: "The fort is, as is usual in this region, upon the best position for defense in that immediate section, being located on the extreme point of a bluff some fifty feet high, and almost vertical at its southern end. It consists of an enclosing wall and ditch, mounds, excavations, and hut range. The length of the wall and ditch from end around to end, following the irregular curve, is about eighteen hundred feet, and there is no wall along the steep bluff facing east and south. Of these outlines the southern end is so steep as to render ascent impractical. The eastern slope is almost equally so. The northern line was well defended by embankment and ditch, and for the remainder of the circuit the embank- ment follows the edge of the high bottom."
A remarkable specimen of stone fortification is found in Warren County, twelve miles north of Bowling Green, on the south bank of Green River. It covers a bluff practically in the shape of a parallelogram, seven hundred and fifty feet on either side. These precipitous bluffs afford complete protection on the north and on the south. Across the ridge were built two stone walls, making a complete defense at either end. These walls are about two hundred feet in length, with an opening or gateway of twenty feet near the middle. The top of this ridge is an open field, and has been under cultivation for many
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years. The walls have been torn down, but a small part of them is left, and the location is distinctly marked. The lines can be traced without difficulty, although it is probable that more than five hundred years have passed since this fort was used for the protection of those who inhabited Kentucky at that time. Facing the entrance of the fort there was a line of mounds continuing for nearly a mile in distance, the mounds being largest near the fort and decreasing in size as they receded: Through the kindness of Honorable B. F. Proctor, a prominent attorney of the Bowling Green bar, who visited the fort in the past few weeks, the writer is able to present on page 52 a sketch of this work.
The sketch on page 53 is an approximately accurate representation of a fortification in Caldwell County near the west fork of Dondelson Creek. This fort enclosed an area of about ten acres of ground. It had a frontage upon the neck of land where the stone wall is constructed of about six hundred feet. The bluffs on either side are at least sixty feet high, and were practically impregnable. It had a single gate facing east, eight feet wide. Large stones were used in the construction of the wall, and they must have been brought from a considerable distance. A portion of the walls still exists, in a reasonable state of preservation. Originally the stone parapet was between six and seven feet high, and garrisoned by sufficient men it would have been impossible for any troops, armed as the men of that period were, to have forced an entrance. The narrowness of the gateway is an assurance that it was built with an eye to fierce defense. It is also unusual by reason of its supply of water. On the west side is a never- failing flowing spring, and traces of steps cut into the
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rock to the spring below are still discernible. The area of ten acres would have given sufficient space for the ac- commodation of quite an army of people, and with the ex- ception of the fortification on Indian Fort Mountain this particular place is among the best constructed and most carefully built within the limits of the State.
Another remarkable stone fort in a reasonably good state of preservation is found in Larue County, about six miles from Hodgenville, on the banks of Rolling Fork River. (See drawing, page 52.) This fort included an area of three and three fourths acres. It is now covered with heavy forest. In its shattered and broken condition it yet gives evidence of advancement among these prehistoric people in the art of fort building. It was situated on a bluff three hundred feet high, either perpendicular or partially overhanging the river below. Its elevation gave it a position from which a splendid lookout could be maintained for miles around. Some distance away, immediately west of the fort, was a spring, which, however, could not be reached except by leaving the fort and going a short distance into the open. An examination shows that the rock wall, which was the real protection of this fort, had no gateway or entrance. Behind the wall was a ditch. The remains of the wall at this time show a structure four and one half feet high, with a base of fifteen feet. At the south end of the stone wall are two curious wing-like projections. The length of the main wall across the neck of the fortifi- cation is three hundred and sixty-three feet. The two wings at the end, which are shown in the illustration, are each forty-nine and one half feet. At two points the natural defenses were strengthened by stone work,
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and all in all there is no stone fort in Kentucky that presents more painstaking preparation or more careful construction for efficiency in defense.
In Green County, two and one half miles from Greens- burg, is another remarkable fort, on Pittman's Creek. The point here selected is what is called The Narrows, close to a pioneer station called Pittman's Fort. A bend of Pittman's Creek here includes an area of two hundred acres of land. At what is known as The Narrows, or neck of the bend, there was only a few feet of level land, and this was hemmed in on either side by great precipices. Across this neck of land walls have been constructed. The fall in the creek at this point is quite abrupt. In 1826 Doctor N. H. Arnold cut a channel across the neck and erected a mill; this channel was the race through which the water passed, and the mill has not yet been abandoned.
In Allen County, thirteen miles west from Scottsville, between that place and Bowling Green, is another remark- able remains of a fortification. It is described in Collins' "History of Kentucky" as follows:
" At this place the Middle Fork of Drake's Creek makes a horseshoe bend, running one mile, then with gradual bend returning to within thirty feet of the channel, where the bend may be said to have commenced. The partition which divides the channel of the creek at this point is of solid limestone, thirty feet thick at the base, two hundred yards in length, twenty feet high, and six feet wide at the top. The top is almost perfectly level and covered with small cedar trees. The area included within the bend of this creek is to the east of this narrow pass, and contains about two hundred acres of land ris- ing from the creek in a gradual ascent of one hundred
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feet, where it forms a bold promontory. The top of this is level, and forms a square area containing about three acres enclosed with walls, and a ditch. The outer ditch is still perceptible and the walls are now about three feet high around the whole circuit of the fort. In the rear of this are to be seen many small mounds."
There is said to be another stone fortification in the southern part of Hardin County. The care, skill, and labor expended in these stone fortifications show that in those prehistoric days the wars were real, that the con- flict between the parties who built the fort and those on the outside must have been long and fierce. How these struggles ended we can not tell. These fortifications all bear a striking resemblance to each other and show that they were probably erected by the same tribe or nation, and that they were not used so much on the border of Kentucky but farther back in the interior, and suggest that there had been an incursion or approach from the north toward the south, and that this line of forts was most likely part of a system built along a borderland in which brave defenders made gallant resistance to the encroachments of the foe who were driving them away from the Ohio.
The description of these forts will give some definite idea not only of the frequency of such works, but also of the necessities which called forth, from the people who used them, such heroic and skillful preparation for resist- ance to their foes.
On page 53 is a drawing of an ancient fortification near Hickman, in Fulton County. This is taken from the report of the Kentucky Geological Survey on the Jackson Purchase Region, by Doctor R. H. Loughridge, whose description the writer adopts :
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" This is located or situated about a mile northeast of Hickman, a short distance from the railroad, on the north side of the bluffs of the Mississippi and Bayou de Chien bottoms. These bluffs are here about seventy-five feet high, and quite abrupt, and gradually slope eastward for a short distance to a flat area, which is indicated by a branch or deep ravine running northward to the Bayou de Chien. The sketch represents a large enclosure of about two acres, extending southeastwardly nearly to the branch, where it is abruptly narrowed for six hundred feet further. The low elevation that borders it on the south for about five hundred feet is now partly plowed down in the cultivated field that lies along the bluff, and is somewhat broken in the flat, until it turns northeast- ward, where it is very prominent. While it would in itself be scarcely recognized as a line of earthworks by any person passing over it, yet when the other and prominent lines are followed and outlined, its own connection is clearly seen. Its course is N. 50 W. or parallel with the other sides, and has a width of ten to fifteen feet, much worn away by drainage of the slope. When near the branch it turns due east for about thirty-five feet, and then N. 40 E. for about one hundred and eighty-five feet to a mound somewhat higher. On the north side of the en- closure another line of earthworks appear, parallel with the one on the south, but beginning about half way between the bluff and branch. It is very regular and unbroken for about one hundred and ninety feet, when it turns S. 60 E. for nearly fifty feet, and thence S. 40 W. for about one hundred and ninety feet to another mound within about ninety-five feet of the former one. This ridge is also prominent and broad. The mounds are about twenty-
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five feet in diameter and from them two parallel lines of earthworks turn S. 40 E. six hundred feet. They are high and wide, and lying as they do in a flat cultivated field are very prominent. Their width is about twenty feet. On the southeast they turn toward each other and terminate, leaving an opening of about twenty-five feet. This is protected on the interior by a large mound forty by thirty-five feet, and higher than the earthworks, leav- ing but a very narrow opening. . For drainage purposes apparently a deep and narrow ditch was dug from either corner of the large enclosure to the branch. This fortification was admirably planned for defense. The large enclosure was presumably occupied by the tribe as a habitation, for fragments of pottery are very abun- dant, especially near the top of the bluff. It was well pro- tected by the steep bluffs and by the earthworks against small forces, but in an emergency or against overwhelming numbers the tribe could retreat into the narrow enclosure, and with a deep ditch at one end and a protected gateway at the other, could better defend themselves."
The same writer describes another ancient fortification upon a spur on the south bluff of Sandy Creek two miles south of Laketon in Ballard County, and another upon a spur of bluffs near the Punckney Bend Road south of the mouth of Mayfield Creek in Ballard County. The latter is particularly interesting in that one line of its embankment presents an irregular front, the irregularity being caused by three bastions, or extensions, each about ten feet wide and reaching out respectively nine, eighteen, and nine feet, their front and sides and also the front of the embankments between them being quite steep. This structure clearly shows that these people possessed
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considerable skill in the art of defensive warfare, and that they knew the great advantage and demoralizing effect of a cross-fire upon an attacking force.
In Greenup County, at a point about a mile and a half below Portsmouth, Ohio, and nearly opposite the old mouth of the Scioto River, are to be seen the remains of the most interesting of the ancient earthworks of Ken- tucky. These were first brought to public notice in 1791 by Major Jonathan Hurt, then stationed at Fort Harmar, who in a letter to Doctor B. S. Bardon, of Philadelphia, bearing date of January 6, 1791, speaks of ancient remains being found " along the Scioto at its junction with the Ohio, opposite which on the Virginia side are extensive works, which have been accurately traced by Colonel George Morgan." These remains were described and mapped by Caleb Atwater, whose account appeared in the first volume of the Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society, published in 1820. E. G. Squier and D. Morton resurveyed them in 1846 and discovered features which had been overlooked by Mr. Atwater. These works also received the attention of Rafinesque as early as 1820. In 1887 Mr. T. H. Lewis resurveyed these imposing remains, and discovered that there were earthworks belonging to the series not noted by Mr. Squier, the most interesting of which was an effigy mound repre- senting a bear. On page 54 is a sketch of these earth- works made from the survey of Mr. Squier and pub- lished in the Smithsonian Contributions, Volume I. The principal work upon the Kentucky side is a square enclo- sure with two lines of outworks consisting of parallel walls, opposite the mouth of the Scioto River. The following account is taken from "Ancient Monuments ": "The sin-
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gular work occurs on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River opposite the old mouth of the Scioto, about two miles beyond Portsmouth. The territory on which it is situated is lifted some fifty feet above the first bottom, and extends back to the hills, which at this point are some distance from the river. It is much cut up by ravines and is quite uneven. The main body of the work is situated on a very beautiful level ascent to the east; the wings are on equally beautiful levels except that they are broken at two or three points by ravines. The principal work is an exact rectangle eight hundred feet square. The walls are about twelve feet by thirty-five or forty feet base, except on the east, where advantage is taken of the rise of the ground so as to lift them about fifty feet above the center of the area.
" The most singular features of this structure are its outworks, which consist of parallel walls leading to the northeast and southwest. They are exactly parallel to the sides of the main work, and are each twenty-one hun- dred feet long. Some measurements make them of unequal length, but after a careful calculation of the space occu- pied by the interrupting ravines they are found to be nearly, not exactly, the same length.
"The parallel to the southwest has its outer wall in line with the northwest wall of the main work, and starts at thirty feet distance from the same. It is broken by a deep ravine near its extremities, which is probably four hundred or five hundred feet wide. Crossing the ravine the walls, traces of which are seen on the declivity, con- tinue some distance, and then curve on a radius of one hundred feet, leaving a narrow gateway eight feet wide in the center. Converging walls start from the point
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of curve, but lose themselves after running three hundred and forty feet without meeting. Just beyond and a little to the right on the plain are two mounds, also a small circle one hundred feet in diameter, the walls of which are two feet high. The parallel, to the northeast, starts from the center of the main work, and is similar to the one already described, save it is not terminated by con- verging walls and there are no mounds beyond. It is interrupted by two ravines, the walls running to the very edges. The left wall of the parallel points to a right angle as it approaches the main work. To the left of this parallel, four hundred and fifty feet from a point eight hundred feet distant from the main work, on a high peninsula or headland, is a singular redoubt. . . . The embankment of the work is heavy and the ditch deep and wide and interior to the wall. The bottom of the ditch to the top of the wall is twelve to fifteen feet. The enclosed area is only sixty feet wide by one hundred feet long. It has a gateway from the northeast ten feet wide, outside of which, in the deep forest, is the grave of one of the first settlers. The object of this enclosure it is difficult to divine. If a place of burial, as has been suggested, prop- erly conducted excavations would disclose the fact.
" A like wall of some one hundred paces in extent runs from the left-hand entrance of the main work along the verge of a declivity, terminating at the western angle. On this side are also three mounds, each about six feet high, formerly much higher, having been greatly reduced by the plow.
" From the western angle a deep gully runs off to the river. It has been mistaken by some for a causeway, entering the main work. The greater part of the lower
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parallel and portion of the upper one are open cultivated grounds. The walls of the main work are so steep as to preclude cultivation, and now form the fence lines of the area, which is fifteen acres. The area of the paral- lel is ten acres each; total thirty-five acres. Between this work and the river are traces of modern Indian encampments, of shells, burned stone, fragments of rude pottery, also some graves. This was a favorite spot with the Indians for various reasons, one of which is its prox- imity to the noted saline spring or deer lick known as McArthur's Lick. From the size of the walls, their posi- tion, and the circumstances, it has been suggested that this was a fortified place. For palisades it would certainly be impregnable to any savage. If designed as a sacred place, its sloping area would be most fit for the observa- tions of sacrifices or ceremonies. What might have been the purpose of the mysterious parallels is more than we can at this period venture to say."
The other group upon the Kentucky side lies farther up the river. "It consists of four concentric circles placed at irregular intervals in respect to each other, and cut at right angles by four broad avenues, which conform in bearing very nearly to the cardinal points. A large mound is placed in the center. It is truncated and ter- raced, and has a graded way leading to its summit." Rafinesque, who visited these ancient works prior to 1820, observed about eight miles of parallels, giving to the paral- lels sixteen miles of embankment, and including the walls of the entire series a grand total of upward of twenty miles. For fuller accounts of these remarkable remains reference may be had to Collins' "History of Kentucky," "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," by Squier
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and Davis, and the "Old Fort Earthworks," by T. H. Lewis, published in the Third Volume of the American Journal of Archeology.
It is impossible to tell why these complex and elaborate earthworks were constructed. The quadrangular structure might possibly have been designed for defensive purposes. By placing palisades on the wall near the south angle where it intersects the spur enclosing the opening, it could be successfully defended against any force, armed only with the weapons in use at the time these embank- ments were raised. The fact that trenches or moats are entirely lacking in connection with this fort and its parallel ways suggests that it was not designed for defensive purposes.
It would not be possible to print a full description of the earthen mounds and enclosures which were originally found in Kentucky. It will rather be more desirable to give some description of the present existing ones which best retain their original forms and contours. The best preserved enclosure in Kentucky at the present time is one located on the Newtown Turnpike, in Fayette County, on the land of Mrs. Brand, north and northeast from Lexington six and one half miles, on a part of what was formerly known as the Moore farm. The writer visited these remains in December, 1909, accompanied by Honorable James H. Mulligan, of Lexington, and Professor H. Stahl. It is on the banks of Elkhorn Creek. This stream flows at its base, and it is seventy-five feet from the water line to the top of the embankment. The outside of the embankment has a circumference of seven hundred and fifty feet, with an average width of twelve to fourteen feet. Immediately inside of the embankment is a moat. The
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moat at this time is from twelve to fifteen feet deep, and the circumference along the center line of the moat is five hundred and fifty-five feet. The distance between the raised elevation inside and the embankment is forty feet. The central elevation has a diameter of one hundred and fifty feet, with a circumference of four hundred and fifty feet. There is a gateway thirty-three feet wide, which had been raised at the time of the construction of the moat. On the embankment, and growing out of it, are two oak trees, one thirteen feet and the other thirteen feet three inches in circumfer- ence, thus indicating an age on the embankment of at least four hundred years.
Time has dealt most gently with these remains. The embankment is practically intact. The moat is not filled up more than three or four feet, and the central enclosure has not eroded at all. It is now covered with a second growth of timber. On the embankment there are indi- cations of a growth of timber preceding the present one, and judging from appearances the timber which had fallen had an age of several hundred years, and this growth had been prior to that which is now found either upon the central enclosure, in the moat, or upon the embank- ment. In all questions of the ages of structures it is difficult to determine with exactness the period of con- struction, but all the conditions which surround this one demonstrates with certainty an age of five hundred years. The drawing on page 51 will give an exact and definite idea of the proportions and lines along which this earthwork was constructed.
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