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 6
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Honorable James H. Mulligan, when a member of the Kentucky Legislature, proposed that the State should
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purchase this remain and make it a public park, together with a reasonable amount of ground in proximity to it. As Fayette County and Lexington have always exhibited a very high degree of public spirit and enlightened prog- ress, it is hoped that in a few years this tract of ground, or the field which contains it, will be purchased by the county of Fayette and the city of Lexington and used for public purposes, so that at least one of the great earth- works of Kentucky, constructed with such beautiful and symmetrical proportions, may be preserved for all time to come. Thickly set with bluegrass, with clay embank- ments and gate, it is an earthwork that may be preserved in its present state, with a slight degree of care, for thousands of years to come.
Near this and between it and Lexington there are still distinct remains which must have been a fort of very considerable extent. This is well described in Collins' History, from which we quote: "The shape of the area is not unlike that of the moon when two thirds full. The dirt from the ditch enclosing this area is thrown sometimes out, sometimes in, sometimes both ways. There is no water within one hundred yards of this work, but there are several very fine springs two hun- dred yards off, and the North Elkhorn is within that distance northeastwardly. An ash tree was cut down in 1845, which stood on the bank of this ditch, which upon being examined proved to be four hundred years old. The ditch is still perfectly distinct throughout its whole extent, and in some places it is so deep and steep as to be dangerous to pass with a car- riage." Fortunately a portion of this work has been included in a bluegrass pasture which has never
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been cultivated, and at this date, December, 1909, the lines of this embankment can be traced for quite a distance.
The best types of these circular enclosures are found in Fayette, Montgomery, and Madison counties. Silver Creek, in Madison County, seems to have been a favorite place not only for the construction of mounds for habi- tation, but also for the erection of enclosures and cere- monial structures. Three of these can be found within a distance of three miles on Silver Creek-two of them on the land of Mrs. Fred Ferris, eight miles from Rich- mond, near a post-office called Ruthton. They are both remarkable products of the prehistoric age, and one of them is practically untouched and uninjured. These two structures lie on the north side of Silver Creek, and with the exception of the circular enclosure on the North Elk- horn in Fayette, there is no earthwork better preserved in Kentucky than the smaller one of these. It was built on the spur of a hill coming down toward Silver Creek and nine hundred feet from the water line, with an eleva- tion of probably fifty feet above the stream. On the west side was a steep slope, on the east side another slope, while on the north side it was only lifted about four or five feet above the original surface, and on the south side there was a descent to Silver Creek.
Squire Boone, a brother of Daniel, in passing down Silver Creek noted the fine location of this particular point for a mill site, and told his companions it would be one of the best of such sites in Kentucky. In the early pioneer days a mill was erected by James Bogy at this place. He patented the land and died some time early in the Nineteenth Century, and chose the middle of the
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smaller of these structures for a family burying-ground. The larger structure consists of an embankment six hun- dred and sixty-three feet in circumference. Inside of this is a moat or ditch. The height of the embankment has an average of four feet, the ditch a depth of from four to six feet. The width of the wall at the base is thirty-six feet, the width of the ditch forty feet. This ditch had evidently been filled up several feet by decay- ing vegetation and by erosion. The diameter of the inside plateau, or space surrounded by the ditch, is one hundred and thirty-five feet. These structures are only about four hundred feet apart. The second is smaller but retains its form more perfectly, and is a splendid demonstration of the symmetry with which these enclo- sures were laid out. It consists of an earthen embankment thirty-six feet in width. Inside of it is a ditch twenty- one feet wide, with a present depth of ten feet. The circumference of the embankment is four hundred and fifty feet. Inside of the ditch is a raised space with a diameter of seventy-five feet. This is covered now with a perfect sod of bluegrass, and trees are growing upon it which show an age of one hundred and twenty-five years. The Bogy family, who patented this land, recog- nizing the splendid situation of this prehistoric structure and the symmetrical form of the plateau inside the ditch, with its seventy-five feet of diameter, appropriated it for a family burying-ground. These burials began in the Eighteenth Century and continued down to 1850. Every available space in the circle has been occupied by these intrusive burials. White and colored pioneers were here laid side by side. The original settler, Mr. James Bogy, must have been a man of large proportions. The length
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of his grave, compared with other graves, shows that he was fully seven feet in height. It is a tradition among the people of Madison County that he was one of the very largest pioneers who came as settlers to Madison County in the early period of the State's history. It is fortunate from an archeological standpoint that Bogy selected this inside space or ceremonial enclosure for the purposes of burial. The presence of the historic dead has protected it from the invading plowshare and pre- served it from cultivation, since the coming of the white man down to this period. From an examination of the present condition of these remarkable structures, so close to each other, it would appear that the greater degree of care and skill was used in the smaller. Why two of these should have been built so closely together, differing only in size and width of the embankment or ditch, can not now be determined. The larger of these structures has received less consideration at the hands of historic men. Mr. Ferris, in 1909, concluded that he would plow up the ground, which up to that time had been in grass and covered by forest trees, and produce a crop of Burley tobacco. His neighbors, with some shadow of superstition in their minds, suggested that bad luck might come as a result of disturbing this ancient enclosure. But a desire for a profitable tobacco crop and the extreme fertility of the soil, enriched by one hundred years of bluegrass and other decaying vegeta- tion, quieted what might have been the fears of the owner's husband, and so it was plowed up and planted in tobacco, and from it was obtained a magnificent return. Probably what was one of the largest yields known in Madison County for a long while came from the embankment,
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the ditch, and the plateau inside, all parts of it having been planted.
North of Mrs. Ferris's place, about three miles farther down Silver Creek, is another of these enclosures, almost a counterpart of the two previously described.
Clark County, adjoining Madison on the north, seems also to have been a favorite place for the building of these enclosures. On Amos Turner's farm, about one mile east of Camargo, there is one called in that neighborhood a fort ring, one hundred and fifty feet in diameter. A few hundred yards away is another of about the same size, only it seems to have been laid off as a square and then the corners rounded, without making it a perfect circle, as is the usual shape. Near Morgan's old station on the hill above Slate Creek there is another of these circles, of uniform size and character with those at Camargo, and in close proximity is yet another. Near Hugh Hurt's, on Grassy Lick, there is still another circle, and on the farm of John T. Megowan is an enclosure nearly oval in form, containing about two acres and having three small mounds within this space.
In Clark County, west of Montgomery, on a rise which overlooks the valley of Upper Howard's Creek, is another of these circles, one hundred and eighty feet in diameter. Similar circles are found in Bourbon, Carroll, Mason, and Pendleton counties, and these seem to have run upon a line beginning on the Ohio River at or near Maysville and continuing in a southwesterly direction through Mason, Bourbon, Fayette, Clark, Montgomery, and Madison counties, and they have been found in such large numbers in 'no other part of the State.
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KENTUCKY'S LARGEST FORT.
It was the writer's good fortune some years ago to bring to public notice certainly the most remarkable prehistoric stone fortification in the State of Kentucky. It is situated in Madison County about three miles east of Berea on the Big Hill Turnpike, and overhangs the head waters of Silver Creek, which, making its way through the rugged lands of the southeastern part of the county, finally empties into the Kentucky River near Idalia, oppo- site the Jessamine County line.
The writer's attention was called to this structure in 1894 by Honorable French Tipton, who was one of the most patient and laborious antiquarians Kentucky has produced, and whose early death was a great loss to the State; also by Honorable Charles L. Searcey, several times representative in the Lower House of the Kentucky Legislature from Madison County. This fort occupies what is known as Indian Fort Mountain, or Robe's Mountain, which lies close to the corners of Madison, Jackson, Garrard, and Rockcastle counties. (See page 54.) For the military skill displayed in the selection of this mountain as a stronghold, and for the patience and labor expended in building the necessary walls to render it impregnable, too much can not be said in praise of both the genius and the skill of the people who constructed the fortifications. Robe's Mountain is cut off from the sur- rounding mountains by deep valleys, and at all points but six its sides for a considerable height are so steep and rugged as to be practically unscalable. On the east the top of this mountain is reached by a neck or ridge nearly a mile in length. This approach, which is a gradual ascent, at many points is less than one hundred feet wide,
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and at no place after it leaves the valley for any distance is it more than three hundred feet wide. At the point where this ridge or neck finally reaches the top of the mountain, these ancient people constructed a stone fort by the erection of a wall across the neck of the ridge. This stone wall is three hundred and eighty-seven feet in length. It is built at a point where the slope of the hillside is very steep. Beginning down on the slope, where a foothold could be obtained for the rocks, they were piled one upon the other in irregular shape and form. This stonework, stacked up on the mountain side, at some places measures sixty feet from the lower base of the wall to the top of the embankment, and rises four or five feet above the natural surface within the space to be fortified, making an embankment or parapet of consider- able proportions behind which the defenders could stand. Some of the stones which entered into this structure were brought from the valley below, where limestone of a char- acter found in the walls could have been quarried. Some of these weigh as much as five hundred pounds, and they must have been carried on sticks by two or more men up the mountain side, and then deposited in their place in the walls. It is an object of wonder how these people could afford to expend such prodigious labor and such great time in erecting this structure. While many limestone blocks were used in constructing this parapet, sandstone, which abounds in the mountain top, is the prevailing mate- rial. The fortification included the whole of the mountain top and contains four or five hundred acres of land. It was naturally defended by precipitous bluffs except at six points. First the neck on which the wall was erected; then about half a mile due east, in a sort of cove, where there is a
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gradual ascent from the valley below, these ancient engineers discovered a pregnable point, and for about seven hundred and twenty-five feet they erected a second stonework built in the same manner as the other, by finding a place on the mountain side sufficiently depressed to admit of a resting place or base for the stone. This second wall extends from the end of one bluff around a curve in the cove to the end of another bluff, and at one end of it there is now in perfect form what the writer has seen nowhere else in Kentucky, with one exception-that is, regularly laid courses of stone. Part of this regular course has been thrown down by the accretion of vegetable mold and earth behind the wall and by the erosion of the earth where the wall rested. About thirty or forty feet of it still remains intact. There is another instance of regularly laid stonework in Nelson County, about five and one half miles from Bardstown on the New Haven Turnpike, which is described more fully elsewhere. Following this bluff which overlooked this stone wall laid in regular courses, and traveling around the side of the mountain for a mile and a quarter, there was no point at which with- out a scaling ladder it would have been possible for an invading force to reach the top. Here another short stone wall had been erected guarding a narrow defile between two projecting bluffs, up which an enemy in single file might have reached this portion of the top of the mountain. This wall was not more than fifteen or twenty feet in length. Upon one of the cliffs, between which it ex- tended, were some curious as well as pathetic remains. The path or defile along which the invaders must necessarily approach to reach the top of the mountain passed directly under the foot of this overhanging cliff. On this par-
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ticular point there were piled a large number of stones, evidently placed there at the time this fortification was manned, for defense. They were of irregular shapes and sizes, weighing from five to twenty-five pounds, and had evidently been placed by the warriors just as the author saw them, to be thrown down upon the invaders who might seek by this defile to enter the stronghold. There are three other points on the mountain top where stones had been piled as a defense against an invading foe. The area upon top of this mountain, and protected by these artificial stone walls, would measure four or five hundred acres. It would therefore have been necessary, in order to thoroughly make defense, to have had a large number of soldiers within the enclosure. With some knowledge of military matters, the writer thinks nothing short of one thousand men would have adequately manned this fortification so as to make it secure against the approach of an enemy. There are no present evidences that this particular mountain was ever used extensively as a place of residence. A few flints picked up here and there, and an ax or two, are all the remains that would indicate that the men of the Stone Age inhabited this spot. It is prob- able that this enclosure was never used as a place of habi- tation, though it might well have been, as there is a large never-failing spring of water within it. It is more likely that in times of danger and invasion a large number of people fled to it as a seat of refuge in which they might find safety from some invading force which did not live in close proximity to the spot. If the foe against which these structures had been erected had inhabited the immediate territory, there would have been evidences of permanent residence within the enclosure; but such evidences are absent.
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1
Gateway in Stone Wall of Fort on Indian Fort Mountain, Madison County, Kentucky. A wagon road now passes through this entrance
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Stone Wall composing part of Stone Fort on Indian Fort Mountain, near Berea, Madison County, Kentucky
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Stone Wall on West Side of Stone Fort on Indian Fort Mountain, Madison County, Kentucky. The stones at this point were laid in regular courses
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North End of Stone Fort on Indian Fort Mountain, Madison County, Kentucky
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Some ten miles from this spot, in the general direction of Richmond, we found a high point covering the end of a bluff on which there were what appeared at first glance to be stone graves, but upon excavation it seemed that they were more likely stone boxes or ovens in which fires either for cooking or signal purposes were builded. Some six miles farther was found a large mound in direct line with these ovens and the mountain fort, and which from its general appearance the author takes to have been a signal station. It is three hundred and eighty feet in cir- cumference, and has the form of a truncated cone. The top is perfectly level, and has a diameter of forty-two feet. It is known as the Samuels Mound and lies near White's Station, on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, seven miles from Richmond. It is in an excellent state of preservation, and upon it the unceasing storms and rains of hundreds of years have failed to produce any visible effect. About it have been found a large number of stone axes, arrowheads, pieces of pottery, and other evidences of the presence of men of the Stone Age. On this mound there was nothing to indicate that it had been used as a place of residence. Growing upon the center was a locust tree, which upon being cut down showed an age of one hundred and seventy-five years. The own- ers of this mound have watched it with such care and pride that they have never allowed it to be disturbed in any way whatever, a course which the writer begged them to continue, as a mound so beautiful and so unique in its characteristics should remain forever as a monument to these vanished people. The proprietors have planted this mound in grapes, and have produced thereon a beau- tiful vineyard which covers its sides and crowns its crest.
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Running back toward Richmond, about two miles from that city, another mound is seen, with nothing unusual in its appearance. But farther back, east of Richmond on the Waco Road, the writer noted a series of other mounds, and farther on northeast still another series of mounds, these all lying in lines which would indicate there had been through this portion of Kentucky a series of forts and signal mounds, all having some military con- nection with the structure on Indian Fort Mountain.
At some period this extensive fortification must have been a central rallying point for many villages and for a large population. The labor expended in its building, the care shown in its plan, and its proximity to the moun- tain ranges south and east of it, would fix its strategic value to the people living north of it for at least fifty miles. A few hundreds of people could not have undertaken the gigantic tasks involved in its erection, and every detail connected with it demonstrates that those who built it considered it a most valuable place of refuge as well as of defense. About it doubtless some great battles were fought and many heroic conflicts waged, and its history embraced some of the most striking events connected with the occupancy of the surrounding country by the Mound Builders during the greatest struggles for their homes and their lives.
One can not resist the temptation to call the dead from their sleep of ages, clothe them with flesh and blood and have them revisit the scenes of their contests for this land, now so beautiful to those who possess it, and which to them, if such thing were possible, would be even dearer and more to be desired.
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IMAGINARY BATTLE SCENE.
Standing on Indian Fort Mountain, lifted five hundred feet above the surrounding plain, facing the beautiful and fertile lands of the bluegrass, which was then the home of these prehistoric people; in sight of their temples of worship, scattered along Silver Creek for five and twenty miles, and drinking in the beauty of a landscape made glorious by Nature's lavish gifts, and seeing on every side their splendid earthen mounds, doubtless sometimes used for sacrifice or signal stations, but more frequently as memo- rials of their beloved and illustrious dead; surrounded by the implements of war they placed and fashioned a thou- sand years ago and which have remained unchanged and in many instances unmoved through the centuries which have intervened since living hands and brave hearts used them in defense of their lives and those they loved, it is no difficult task to transport one's self back through the ages and to discover and renew the scenes which once made this very spot radiant with courage and glori- ous with achievement.
There must have been an hour when a people, harassed and pursued by war's misfortunes, had found on the summit lands of this mountain a place of refuge in times of conflict. The fortifications, built almost entirely of stone, meant great labor and heroic toil. Only the fear of fierce and avenging foes could have caused the con- struction of this mighty fort of refuge, into which, when war's savage cruelties were imminent, a peaceful and happy tribe could find safety and repose.
One could almost see the invading army, in the dark-
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est hour of the night, stealthily advancing through the thick forest, and catch glimpses of the alert pickets of the fort's defenders as they nimbly and quickly retire before the approach of the moccasined warriors who, in the silence and gloom of the forest, are attempting to steal their way unobserved through the narrow gorges with which Nature has torn the mountain sides above and beyond, and to reinforce which those inside the fort had con- structed stone parapets, over which no foe could leap without a death struggle with those who guarded the most sacred possession of life.
On the rock's projections, which overhang narrow passages that lead through the stone walls which Nature had created, and along which two men at most could pass abreast, these prehistoric men had piled rock missiles weighing from five to twenty-five pounds, and on either side had built stone parapets, from which arrows and spears could be hurled upon those below who might at- tempt to capture the fort.
The whole scene becomes a moving panorama. The invaders, with their feet clad in moccasins, move with the noiselessness of a tiger hunting its prey. Valiant and successful leaders, men great in war and in council, guide the line of march, and in tones almost inaudible speak comforting words to their dusky legions. These cap- tains, with their gorgets and banner stone emblems of authority and leadership, carefully instruct the vanguard, strong and gallant file leaders point the way, and with a keenness of vision and a stealthiness of step that rivals the beasts of the forest in the darkest hour of the night, they press on toward the stone-crowned heights of this mighty fort. They had marched miles with steady tramp
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since the setting of the sun, and they hoped and believed that the enemy within the enclosure knew naught of their presence or their purpose.
Generals within had designed and constructed the marvelous fort. They must have been soldiers of no mean achievement to have located and builded so splendid a place of defense, and they knew the skill and the genius of the foes who had overrun their homes and driven them, their wives and their children, to this spot, on which they were now to make their last brave stand for land and life. Through the long, long hours of the night messenger after messenger had come from the front to tell of the steady tramp of a great pursuing host, bent on destruction, and with its march pointed toward the northern approach to the mountain. They had scouted the woods on every side and they knew that only one line of invasion was designed, and with the true military instinct would assail the fort at its weakest point.
There was no rest nor sleep on the mountain top. Conflict, battle, death, destruction, nerved the arms of those here making their last stand. The fires were smoth- ered, mothers gave the refuge of their bosoms and laps to their offspring, and gathered in groups about the war- riors; sleeping children, led and helped by their mothers, lent terror to the scene. From the central camp detach- ment after detachment was marched to the stone de- fenses, but the great mass of the defenders, under the inspiration of their greatest leader, was dispatched to the north approach.
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