USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume One > Part 3
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It was on a mid-summer day, that Professor G. Frederick Wright and the writer, stood on the summit of that outlook mound, and reveled in the beauty of the charming landscape. My distinguished compan- ion told the story of the creation of this panorama; how it took cycles of years to mold this land and carve out the great heights and depressions and then how the final touches were put to the picture by the icy fingers of the glacial hand; how the great frozen ava- lanche came down the trough of the Ohio and meeting an obstruction near this point, choked the channel and formed a glacial dam high enough to raise the level of the water five hundred and fifty feet, forming the "Ohio Lake." The glaciers acted as great freight cars
20
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
that hauled down sand and gravel and covered the hillsides and filled the valleys. The mouth of the Great Miami was the southwest point of this great ice bed in Ohio. That was decades of centuries before the Mound Builders climbed the steep hill, erected their stronghold and, according to General Harrison, made their last stand for their Ohio land. He surmises the Mound Builders may have been the Aztecs, in which case, "the direct course of their journey to Mexico and the facilities which that mode of retreat would afford, seem to point out the descent of the Ohio, as the line of that retreat. It was here (Miami Fort) that a feeble band was collected to make a last effort for the country of their birth, the ashes of their ancestors and the altars of their gods. "
Commanding the rivers as it did, Miami Fort was certainly one of the most strategic points of the Mound Builders' system of defenses. Several archæological authorities, particularly General M. C. Force, in his interesting essay on the Ohio Mound Builders, point out that from this elevation (Miami Fort) a line of signals could be put in operation, which in extent would cover the southwestern portion of the state. This signal system of wireless telegraphy included, according to General Force, the numerous prehistoric works on the Great Miami, dotting the banks of which they stretched in a line as far north as modern Piqua, "all put in communication with each other by signal mounds erected at conspicuous points." Fort Ancient on the Little Miami stands as "a citadel in the rear of the center of this line." He also figures out a series of alarm signal mounds along the Scioto from a mound
BUTLER COUNTY FORT.
Fortified Hill, Butler County, three miles below Hamil- ton. This Fort is famous for having the intricate so-called Tlascalan gateways, after the plans employed in the pre- historic stone wall defenses of the Province of Tlascala, Mexico.
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
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21
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
near Worthington down the entire length of the valley to the works at Portsmouth, a distance of over a hun- dred miles.
Certain it is that in prehistoric times, no less than in the later pioneer days, the Great Miami was a frequent- ed waterway, for along its valley plains were numerous sites where dwelt the Mound Builders, while many of the hill-tops, on each side of the river, were capped with walled enclosures or various shaped single mounds. After entering the Riviere a la Roche, as he called the Great Miami, Céloron, in his voyage north to Picka- willany, passed (1749) beneath the war-like embattle- ments of many an earthen fortification. These earth- built "strongholds" defended the hill summits, no less securely than the stone turrets, which, like grim senti- nels, guarded the rock cliffs of the romantic Rhine, and doubtless these simple, crude bulwarks of clay on the heights of the Big Miami were reared before the German Barons erected their towered castles. After paddling past four or five of these ancient fortresses, deserted and tenantless then as now, the plucky sailors of the little French fleet might have sighted the shadows of a peculiarly constructed muniment which we call the Butler County Fort, because located in that county, three miles below the present town of Hamilton.
This "fort" was accurately described by Mr. Squier in a pamphlet, published in New York in 1847. He made a careful survey of the works, the plat of which was afterwards used in the extensive volume of Squier and Davis.
The fort hill, like nearly all of the heights similarly protected, is the termination of an upland range that
22
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
rises to an elevation of two hundred and fifty feet and extends out like a long tongue into the valley, surround- ed at all points, except the narrow neck towards the north, by deep, steep-sided ravines. Skirting the brow of the hill and generally conforming to its rim, was the wall of earth and stone, having an average height of five feet with a base of thirty-five. The length of the wall embankments was about three-quarters of a mile, not counting the gateway defenses, and the area en- closed was some seventeen acres. The hill summit, thus enwalled, rises gently on all sides from the rim towards the center, forming a knoll or camel-hump which at its greatest altitude is some twenty-five feet above the encircling walls. From this apex one may overlook the entire surrounding country, presenting the Great Miami valley on the east and the valley of Indian Creek on the west.
On our visit we found the fading forms of the earthen walls overgrown with forest trees and almost obscured by impenetrable underbrush and tanglewood. There remain faint outlines of the famous north gateway and its crescent outpost. For it was the complicated pro- tection. to the four gateways or openings, three at the southern extremity and one at the north, facing the land neck, that peculiarly distinguished this fortifi- cation. Interior to the openings were "covering" walls of a "most singular and intricate description, " a series of overlapping labyrinthian breastworks, so fashioned that the entering enemy would become en- trapped between them. Exterior to the gateway was a massive crescent-shaped mound extending across the land neck, convexing towards the plateau that afforded
23
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
the approach to the fort. This gateway plan is in al- most exact correspondence to the so-called Tlascalan gateways, employed in the stone wall defenses of the province of Tlascala, Mexico, and described by Cortez and other early Spanish writers. This form of gateway with variations, is found in other works of the Miss- issippi and Ohio Valley Mound Builders and leads to the inference that there was some ethnical relationship between the Ohio Mound Builders and the ancient Aztecs and Toltecs.,
We pass from these stone and semi-stone hill-top defenses, of which there were several that we must leave unmentioned, to the chief masterpiece of the Mound Builders known as Fort Ancient. It is easily foremost among the prehistoric fortifications for ingenuity of design and perfection in construction. Its value is greatly enhanced by the fact that owing to the patron- age of the state of Ohio and the custodianship of the Ohio State Archæological and Historical Society, it is in a complete state of restoration and preservation and stands to-day probably as it stood in its pristine perfection. An account of this colossal structure, accompanied by a correct plan, which we herewith reproduce, appeared in the "Port Folio," a magazine published in Philadelphia for the year 1809. Since then, from time to time, innumerable descriptions and diagrams have appeared in publications, American and foreign, for it has attracted the attention of scholars the world over, and has been examined and explored for a century by the leading archæologists of this country.
The site selected for this fortress, temple or walled city, whichever it may have been, was most advantage-
24
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
ously chosen, on a slightly rolling plateau, overlooking the panoramic valley of the Little Miami River, in central Warren County. The Miami, coming from the north, at the point in question, passes through a valley a mile in width and flanked on each side by ele- vated uplands, the east one of which is nearly separated from the adjoining plateau by two deep ravines, be- ginning within a few hundred feet of each other, the one starting north and then curving to the west, forming the bed of the little stream known as Randall Run which enters the Miami, north of the fort; the other ravine, the bed of Cowen Creek, starting south curves to the west, debouching into the Miami south of the fort, which is thus seen to occupy an almost isolated peninsula, the level plateau of which, three hundred feet above the Miami bottom, is surmounted by Fort Ancient. The banks of the ravines described form steep sides on the east and on the north of the peninsula which they cut off and to which the only approach, save a modern circuitous roadway on the river hillside, is the neck or strip of level plain between the heads or sources of the two ravines. The ravines on the south, east and north of the hill thus formed are exceedingly irregular in outline, creating sharp arms, jagged points and deep indentations in the hillside. The contour of the hill plateau is like that of a dumb-bell, two almost evenly sized oval fields united by a long narrow neck, on each side of which the declivity is too steep for ascent; this narrow connection divides the defenses into what are known as the North or New Fort, the Middle Fort and the South or Old Fort. The terms "new" and "old" were suggested by the idea that the South Fort on the
FORT ANCIENT.
Plan of Fort Ancient (Warren County). This plan with an explanation was published in the Portfolio (Phila- delphia) for June, 1809. It was the first illustration of the Fort ever made. Reproduced from the original in the Portfolio.
r
R 1 RIVER
54
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
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25
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
apex of the peninsula was naturally the first one to be constructed, as it, utilized alone, would be more secure and inaccessible than the new one which was later taken in to protect the entire hilltop. This supposition like much that is put forth concerning the fort, is how- ever a fanciful guess.
Around this entire peninsula, on the very verge of the skirting ravines, was built the wall of defense; meandering around the spurs, recoiling to pass the heads of the gullies, that here and there cut into the hillsides, the wall is so zigzag in its course that it has an entire length of eighteen thousand, seven hundred feet or more than three and one-half miles, while a direct line from the north wall to the south wall is only five thousand feet or less than a mile. The entire en- closure embraces about one hundred and thirty acres. This wall is a marvelous piece of defensive construction. Its width, height and contents vary as the requirements of the hill-top and the proposed formidableness of the defense demands. The base breadth is from thirty to fifty feet, in some places as much as seventy ; the height from ten to twenty-five feet, measuring from the level of the fort interior. The level top of the wall has an average width of twelve feet and the sides, therefore, have an outward slope of from thirty-five to forty-three degrees. The wall height is much increased at places on the interior by a moat or ditch, two to seven feet deep, from which the material was taken to build the barricade. Outside the east wall of the North Fort, where the wall faces the only level approach, a moat was built, the only outside moat in connection with the fort. The walls are all constructed of earth, the
26
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
soil being a tough, diluvial clay or loom. Stones were used only in the wall ends at the gateways or openings as "steadiers" and to aid in preventing the earth from giving way. In rare exceptions large flat stones were found in layers in the wall, but in the main the em- bankments were solely of earth, the solidifying effect of time and the protecting coverings of grass rendering them impervious to the decay of age or the ravages of weather, it being a well-known fact that earthen mon- uments stand the storms of seasons and the strain of time better than edifices of stone.
One of the greatest mysteries of this encircling wall is the frequency of the openings or so-called gateways, numbering seventy-two. They are ten feet or less across the base and are perfectly preserved. They defy explanation as most of them are at points on the hill-top, inaccessible because of the precipitate ascent, and the query is heightened by the fact that in some instances outside the wall, before the opening or gate- way, is built a narrow earth elevation or platform, which might be used as a look-out or sentinel stand. The Middle Fort is long and narrow, the hill slope on either side being too steep for ascent. Near the center of the narrow passage is the crescent gateway, a sort of in- termediate barricade, consisting of two curving mounds, side by side, each convexing toward the north and ex- tending to the parallel walls on either side. This defense seems to mean that the enemy would be expected to first attack the New Fort and if successful then advance along the neck and assault the Old Fort. The crescent duly manned would check if not defeat the enemy's progress. The entrance to the Old Fort is called the
WALLS OF FORT ANCIENT.
Portion of the East Wall (north), Fort Ancient. View taken from the field outside and east of the wall.
The lower picture presents a section of the West Wall (north), Fort Ancient, near the entrance to the Middle Fort. View taken from the inside of the Fort, looking west. Photographs taken for Ohio History.
TUL RUE ROGRESS
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27
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
Great Gateway and is only wide enough to permit a wagon to pass, and just within the entrance, on the west side, is a conical mound, ten feet high with a base diam- eter of forty feet, near which were found heaps of stones, used both as coverings for graves and to strengthen the wall. Human bones in great quantities, "bushels of them," were found here a few inches below the sur- face soil. Was this mound the monument to heroes, of a Thermopylae, who battled bravely for the "pass," like the three hundred of Grecian glory? We cannot tell for
" Here, where they died, their buried records lie, Silent they speak from out the shadowy past."
Near the center of the Old Fort was located the "cem- etery," the largest burying-ground of this fort people. Within a radius of a hundred feet, some three hundred graves were found and "over a thousand wagon loads of stones" were removed therefrom by different exca- vators. Professor Warren K. Moorehead, made ex- plorations in this fort covering in the aggregate more than forty-three weeks, during the years 1888 to 1891. The results of these researches were published in his valuable volume "Fort Ancient." Professor Moore- head exhumed some twenty complete skeletons. The graves were sunk an average depth of two and one-half feet and were encased with limestones which were plentiful in the ravines and river bottom below. These stones were arranged around the sides, head and feet and over the remains of the interred bodies. The space between the encasing stones and the body was usually filled in with earth. These skeletons, which generally crumbled to dust on being exposed, showed little or
28
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
no difference in size and form from the modern human being. The "skulls were well shaped," and Professor Moorehead thinks, presented two types of mentality, a lower and a higher order; dolichocephalic and brachy- cephalic, the craniologists would call them; the long and flat heads or receding forehead and the short heads or "high brows," the latter belonging, presumably to the "smart set." Professor Moorehead further claims that the tree growths surmounting some of the graves indicated that the burials antedated the period when the Indians were known to have first immigrated into or occupied this portion of the country; that is, the post-Columbian historic tribes, such as the Delawares, Shawnees, etc. Mr. Warren Cowen, for the past twelve years the faithful and efficient custodian of the Fort and resident thereon, states that he removed from the space including the cemetery the stump of a walnut tree which a distinguished botanist estimated to be between four and five hundred years old. Outside the walls of the fort, at various points, perhaps a dozen in number, some twenty-five feet down the declivity, are terraces, only a few feet wide, whether artificial or natural is in dispute, which were used as graveyards or burial sites. The graves in the main were similar in construction and contents to those just described, except that some of these terrace graves contained united burials; a sort of group tomb. One of these plural tombs on the terrace west of the Old Fort, covered a space twenty feet wide the width of the terrace-and fifty feet long. The quantity of stones removed therefrom was equal to one hundred wagon loads. It required the labor of three men for two days
29
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
to displace the loose masonry of this crude mausoleum, from which fragments of twenty skeletons were ex- humed.
That the great enclosure was to a certain extent at least, a walled city, is attested by the remains of a "village" therein, explored by Professor Moorehead. This village was in the Old Fort and adjacent to the cemetery already described. The evidences were the circles of burned earth, ash heaps, pottery and animal fragments, bones of the bear, deer, etc., charcoal, burnt stones, etc., marking the places where the tepees or lodges had been erected-in short the same discoveries that disclose village sites elsewhere. No metal imple- ments of any kind were found, except a few pieces of beaten copper. Thousands of primitive implements of war, the chase and domestic life, arrow and spear- heads, axes, skinners, etc., were found in the fort precincts, indicating great active life therein.
Just outside the northeast gateway of the New Fort, in an area of about an acre were found vast numbers of bulk flint and flint chippings, consisting of countless pieces of unwrought flakes and innumerable fragments in various stages of workmanship, of arrows, spear- heads, knives, awls, needles, etc. The stock for this storehouse or "factory" was supplied, as the character of the flint reveals, solely from the vast fields of Flint Ridge in Licking County (Ohio), for there are no flint quarries in the vicinity of Fort Ancient. Such in brief is Fort Ancient.
Like all other works of this early people Fort Ancient was unmistakably the product of builders who wrought only with the tools of a stone age. There were no
30
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
steam shovels, no derrick scoops to lift the earth and dump it in position-it was "hand made." Not even horses, mules, oxen or wooden sledges facilitated the labor. Though in justice to all authorities it should be noted that there is one unique theory in favor of animal aid. Dr. Frederick Larkin in his “ Ancient Man in America" sedately introduces the suggestion that the mastodon, the bones of which are found in Ohio and elsewhere, contemporaneously with those of the Mound Builder, was a "favorite animal and used as a beast of burden" by them. Mr. Larkin then seriously declares it is not difficult for him to believe that those ancient people "tamed that monster of the forest and made him a willing slave to their superior intellectual power." Such being the case he adds: "We can imagine that tremendous teams have been driven to and fro in the vicinity of their great works, tearing up trees by the roots or marching with their armies into the fields of battle amidst showers of poi- soned arrows."
The age and object of this stupendous structure have elicited every variety of conjecture. It would be entertaining to recite all the curious purposes attri- buted to this work. One thinks it was a great relief map of the continent of North and South America, the lines of the New and Old Forts bearing a striking resemblance to the outlines of the Western Hemisphere. Another that the walls of the two forts resemble two great serpents turning and twisting in deadly conflict- as the serpent, supposedly, was the chief religious sym- bol of those primitive people. Another regarded it an immense trap to secure game. The hunters would form
GREAT GATEWAY.
In Fort Ancient, leading from the Middle Fort to the Old or South Fort.
STONE GRAVE AND SKELETON.
As discovered by Professor Moorehead in the Prehistoric. Cemetery of the Old Fort Ancient
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
MOYAWETAD TANIO To lift the earth and Jan orft of tTOH off biMontimort gaibsol torntatieI'M Not even
MOTAJINE CIMA ITAMO FOTOTities it should T adı Hated the
Dr. F treionA JIOH BIO dt to (1991093 Ancient Man in America dunes the suggestion
that the wartodo . of which are found in 18o and clicsloin, scumpe murouily with those of the Magad Buildin. wax a "Kanrife animal and used 3. & bort of bunden" lg chem, Mr. Lukin then
wofondly Andares it is not a role for biz ab believe Ibut theal intent people "tamed that monster of the birell sod mide him a willing slave to their superior bebilui power" Such being the our he adds: "We can imagine that tremendous comme have been driren to sud En in the vicinity of their great works, tekrigg op trees by the roots or marching with their unabe Ioin the fields of battle amidst showers of poi-
The age and object of this stupendous structure have lidted every varjery of conjecture. T: would be entersuinjag to retire all the curious purpurs attri- buted to this work. One thinks it was a cvent relief map of the continent of North and South America, the lines of the New and Old Forta bearing a striking resemblance to the cuslines of the Western Hemisphere. Another that the wall of the two forts resemble two gril Jerpeitti torniing and twisting in deadly conflict- ay ILcarpenL inpposedly, was the chief religions sym- bol al tos primitive people, Another regarded it an immmic Cup Jasonire game. The hunters would form
PLATE 26
31
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
lengthy lines the country around and drive the buffalo, deer and wild game into this corral, where the animals could be retained and killed at pleasure. Others con- clude it was a vast holy temple, in which religious ceremonies of great and imposing nature were at times celebrated. Again it is merely a walled town. But mostly it has been designated, as before stated, a military fortress, the safe retreat and refuge for the tribesmen of the surrounding country. To our mind it is not impossible that it was the fortified capital of these people in the Ohio valley. May it not have been the national seat of government, the federal head- quarters of the confederated tribes? Certainly it was the center of a great Mound Builder population, for the Miami valley in this neighborhood was alive with these people, as the various scientific explorations in- dubitably testify. At the base of the fort hill, on the broad bottom of the river, was a village site great in extent; one mile and a half below the southern extrem- ity of Fort Ancient was "another large village covering some eight or ten acres, rich in graves and debris; two miles up the river is still a third, so large that it must have been occupied by two or three hundred lodges- while at the mouth of Caesar Creek, six miles to the north, are two extensive sites, one in the bottom and the other upon the hill to the south."
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