USA > Ohio > History of Ohio; the rise and progress of an American state, Volume One > Part 4
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CHAPTER II. PREHISTORIC; LOWLAND ENCLOSURES
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T HE lowland enclosures baffle description and enumeration. They abound in the valleys of the Muskingum, Scioto and Little Miami, though a few are found in other parts of the state. The earthen walls of these enclosures are usu- ally from fifteen to thirty feet broad at the base, eight to twelve feet in height, with a level top a few feet less in width than the base, the sides, slightly sloping, very often so gently as to be easily ascended. The material of the walls consists, in almost every instance, solely of the soil found in the immediate vicinity. The earth- wall structures have an endless variety of forms and appear to have been used for different purposes which purposes are now past determination. The most com- mon figures are those of the square and the circle, portions of each of which are employed in endless combinations. Many of the enclosures are irregular, with no definite shape; others, however, have designs so definite and suggestive as to give the idea that they are symbolic- such as the crescent, the circle, the horse-shoe, the ellipse, the cross, the triangle, the octagon, and numerous other geometrical figures. Often there are enclosures within enclosures, curious and multishaped arrangements all surrounded by a great circle or square. Some of the enclosures are very large, the walls being a mile or more in length, suggesting, says one author, "the idea that they were used for defensive purposes;" others are very small, containing but the fraction of an acre, intimating that they may have been "lodge circles" or religious courts. The walls themselves contain no burials or articles of any kind whatever and therefore give no hint of the mystery locked in the grass-grown,
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
weather-defying, earthen ramparts. Mr. Stephen D. Peet, Editor of the AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN and author of several works on "Prehistoric America," speaking of these enclosures, after admitting the uses to which they were put are unknown, proceeds to say: "some of them were used as places of amusement, dance circles and race courses; others were probably used as places of religious assembly, estufas or sacred houses; some of them contain effigies, the effigies giving them a religious significance."
The most intricate of these nondescript works are located in the Licking Valley near the city of Newark. In Licking County there are, or were, probably five hundred earth works of various descriptions. Those which comprise the most famous groups occupy a plain between Racoon Creek and the south fork of Licking Creek, which plain is elevated from thirty to fifty feet above those watercourses. The earth-walls, shaped into a score or more of different designs, extend over an area of four square miles. No word description is adequate to convey to the mind of the reader a just idea of the magnitude and puzzling character of these works. We reproduce the diagram of the figures made from the survey of Charles Whittlesey and relied upon by Squier and Davis in their "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley." The growth of the city of Newark has encroached upon the original works, portions of which were thus obliterated; but the group, as remaining today, surpasses all others in this country in size and intricacy of construction.
Only a general description can be attempted. Re- ferring to the Whittlesey chart, the southern circle
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NEWARK EARTH WORKS.
Plan of the Prehistoric Earth Works at Newark, Ohio, reproduced from the printed diagram in the Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. The survey for this plan was made for Squier and Davis by Colonel Charles Whittlesey about 1850. Most of the works still stand as originally erected centuries ago.
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
ГЛЯОЙ НТЯАЯ ХЯАТАИ
dthlowT ods at msigsib botmirq ont mort beauborgsid author Stephen D.
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probably used as places
isufre or sacred houses; some of then versin offres, the eligies giving them a religious
The wær letname of these nonleminst works are locard in the Licking Valley near the enty ol Newark.
Tu Lidairy County there are, of wim probably five budd wirth works of various dieepigdicos Those - Liich comotive the most famous groupe occupy a plain Between Raboon Creek and the south fork of Licking Crrel, which plain is elevated from thirty to fifty feet whove those watercourses. The earth-walls, shaped
iuro a score or more of different designe, extend over il ares of four square miles. No word description. is adequate ( moving to the mind of the reader a just idea of the newutide and puzzimy character of these works. We reproduire the Ulegram of the figure- made Tross ile survey of Charles Whittlecy and relied upon hy Sauter and Davis in their "Ancient Monuments of the Mimosippi Valley." The growth of the city of Nemul har encroached upon the original works, portionied which were thus obliterated; but the group, D. hmanjine Today, surpasses all others in this country
Uby & souryal description can be attempted. Re- Tervig to the Whittlesey chart, the southern circle
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Area 20 Acres
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
consists of an embankment twelve feet high and fifty feet broad at the base, with an interior ditch seven feet deep and thirty-five feet wide, the area enclosed being upwards of thirty acres. In the center is a mound in the shape of a "huge bird-track," the middle toe being one hundred and fifty feet, and the other two toes, one hundred and ten feet in length. Leading from the gateway of this enclosure are parallel embankments some two hundred feet long which lead into a broad space flanked by walls not of great height but extending, with irregular breaks, half a mile to the entrance of a square containing about twenty acres, and having a low mound at each corner and also at each central entrance of which there are three, one each on the north- east, west and south. From the northeastern gateway, there run parallel walls, one with a curious curve in the center, for a thousand feet, to a series of low walls, "as intricate almost as a Cretan labyrinth," and there is met an arched embankment of circumvallation, em- bracing numerous low mounds and one small circle, with other designs too bizarre to be described. Re- curring to the square, we find, starting from its gateway in the northwest wall a broad avenue of parallel walls a mile in length; just north of these is another pair of parallels of the same length and equal distance apart. Both these avenues lead to an octagon, which encloses an area of fifty acres. In this octagon, opposite each entrance is a pyramidal mound about five feet high, and eighty by one hundred feet at the base. From the gateway on the southwest side, parallels, three hundred feet long, conduct the observer into another true circle, about one half mile in circumference and enclosing an
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
area of twenty acres; this circle rests on ground some- what more elevated than the other figures and is usually spoken of as the "observatory circle" from the parapet of which one can best overlook the entire group, a magnificent work, "which," says Professor J. W. Foster in his "Prehistoric Races," "no one whose mind is susceptible to whatever is grand in nature or in art, can view with indifference," and Squier well adds, "here covered with the gigantic trees of a primitive forest, the work truly presents a grand and impressive appearance; and in entering the ancient avenue for the first time, the visitor does not fail to experience a sensa- tion of awe, such as he might feel in passing the portals of an Egyptian temple, or in gazing upon the ruins of Petra of the Desert." Mr. Foster further remarks: "No one, I think, can view the complicated system of works here displayed, and stretching away for miles, without arriving at the conclusion that they are the result of an infinite amount of toil, expended under the direction of a governing mind, and having in view a definite aim. At this day, with our iron implements, with our labor-saving machines, and the aid of horse power,-to accomplish such a task would require the labor of many thousand men continued for many months. These are the work of a people who had fixed habitations, and who, deriving their support, in part at least, from the soil, could devote their surplus labor to the rearing of such structures. A migratory people, dependent upon the uncertainties of the chase for a living, would not have the time, nor would there be the motive, to engage in such a stupendous under- taking."
39
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
In the vicinity of the Newark groups is the prehis- toric structure known as the Fair Ground Circle. This wall circle is almost perfect in its geometrical symmetry, the longest diameter (from east to west) being eleven hundred and eighty-nine feet; the shortest eleven hundred and sixty-three feet. The wall of the en- closure varies in width from thirty-five to fifty-five feet, and from five to fourteen feet in height. There is an outside ditch or moat from thirty-five to forty feet wide and from eight to thirteen feet deep. Within the center of this great circle, some three quarters of a mile in circumference, is a huge mound, or rather a group of four mounds, which has been described as resembling an eagle with outstretched wings, the head pointing directly to the gateway or entrance to the circle. To our mind it requires some employment of the imagination to recognize this group as the great bird of liberty, though, says one who has carefully studied it, "it was probably intended for some such image." It is one of the very few effigy mounds found in Ohio, there being but two or three others, one of which is in this neighborhood, on the outskirts of the village of Granville. It is known as the " Opossum" or "Alligator" mound-some consider it a replica of a lizard. It appears to take the form most readily occurring to the mind of the observer, reminding one of the imaginative faculty of Polonius, who at the re- spective suggestions of Hamlet, could see a camel, a weasel or a whale in the same "yonder cloud." This effigy stands out, or did some years ago when first visit- ed by the writer, in bold relief upon the hillside, the total length, from nose to tail-tip, being two hundred
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
and fifty feet; breadth of body, forty feet; length of each leg, thirty-six feet; average height (relief) four feet. Whatever it was, it will soon be the irreparable prey of the plow-share of the thrifty yeoman who reveres not this priceless relic, doubtless the religious shrine of a primitive race, for close to the upper side of the effigy was, when originally found, an elevated circular space or flat mound, covered with stones which had been much burned, indicating its use as an altar, from which, to the top of the back of the effigy, was a graded way ten feet broad. Here then must have gathered the clans for ceremonial, perhaps sacrificial rites.
That the country round about the present site of Newark was a populous one with the Mound Builder is partially accounted for by the location of the great flint quarries in the southeast corner of the present Licking County. The Mound Builder has been prop- erly called a "practical lithologist." Belonging to the stone age, he knew nothing of metals and much less of the art of reducing ores to useful implements. His crude utensils were solely of stone, bone and wood- save in rare instances he made use of beaten copper. Flint was his most valued and most employed raw material because of its compact, homogeneous, durable texture. This rare geologic composition, that Shake- speare calls "the everlasting flint" which nothing can e'er wear out, existed in vast quantities in a vein that caps the hill-tops in a range between the present sites of Newark and Zanesville. This vein, which gives to this locality the name of "Flint Ridge, " is from two to ten feet in depth and covers an area some ten miles in length, with an average width of three miles, the
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
entire field being therefore some thirty square miles. This Flint Ridge is literally honey-combed in every quarter with hundreds of pits and cavities of all di- mensions from that of a scoop-out a few feet across to those a hundred feet in diameter and sunk the full depth of the vein. The method of mining is not definitely known but from the clear evidences of fire and the frequent discovery of stone hammers, weighing respect- ively from twenty to one hundred and fifty pounds, it is believed that the separated chunks were secured by building fires in the fissures of the flint, under its ledges or on its surface, then upon the heated rock dashing cold water, the reaction splitting portions loose. These detached fragments could be broken into smaller pieces which were carried to the "finishing shop" or local habitation of the artisan, where it was reduced to various sized flakes, which were finally chipped by stone, wood or bone into the desired implement, an arrow or spear-head, a flesher, a drill or some other of the innumerable implements. Chips of all sizes are still found in myriad numbers over the area of the "ridge," proving the immensity of the work done in these quarries, which were the exhaustless mines for both the Mound Builder and his successor, the Indian. The aborigines must have resorted to this ridge for a long period of time, doubtless centuries, for it was certainly quarried anterior to the construction of many of the mounds in Ohio and West Virginia, for arrows, cores and flakes from "Flint Ridge" were found in them.
"Flint Ridge" though not the only flint quarry in the state, was the one most patronized by the primitive
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
Ohioan because of the superior quality of its product, which is easily distinguished from that of other mines. This flint shows an almost endless and pleasing diver- sity of coloring, there are large beds of striped jasper and chalcedony; and all shades of color, from pure white to dull black, red, yellow, blue, brown, indeed nearly all the tints of the rainbow. Some of the speci- mens picked up by the writer are as beautiful as the most delicate moss agate, so that beauty cast its spell over this hard, impenetrable material so deftly shaped by the savage.
" At the door of his wigwam Sat the ancient arrow-maker, In the land of the Dacotahs, Making arrow-heads of jasper, Arrow-heads of chalcedony."
The Muskingum valley is rich in prehistoric remains and the mouth of that river was chosen as a site for what might be called one of their most "classic" centers. When the Pilgrim Fathers of the second Mayflower landed at the place they named Marietta, they found, not the ruins, but the undisturbed remains of a town (?) founded and left by a prehistoric people, of whom the Indian delegation which greeted the Ohio Company of Associates upon their arrival could give no knowl- edge or surmise.
The plain on which the Marietta works stood is from eighty to one hundred feet above the river level and is about three-fourths of a mile long by half a mile broad. The works of this ancient town, now almost entirely obliterated by the encroachment of the modern city, consisted mainly of a circular mound with adjacent
THE MARIETTA WORKS.
Plan of the Prehistoric works at the mouth of the Muskingum as found by the Ohio Company of settlers in 1788. The works are now nearly destroyed. The circular mound on the right now stands in the city ceme- tery. This drawing is from the plan printed by Squier and Davis about 1850 which was a reproduction of the survey drawing made by Charles Whittlesey.
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS ГЛЯОУ АТТАІЯАМ АНТ
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The Mudkinguor valley a sieht in prehistoric remains and the mouth of thun river was chosen as a site for what might be called one of flieir moat "classic" centers. When the Pilgrim Father of the second! Mayflower Dodal at the place they named Mesicua, they found, but To nina, bar che undisturbed remains of a town (?) breded and left by x prehistoric people, of whom the Indian dilegation which greatfed the Chio Company of Axsolaires upon their arrival could give no knowl- edge or surmise.
The plain on which the Marietta works stood is from Biglity to one hundred feet above the river level and is about three-fourths of a mile long by half a mile broad. The works of this ancient town, now almost entirely obliterated by the encroachment of the modern city. consisted mainly of a circular mound with adjacent
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
linear wall and two enclosed squares containing areas respectively of twenty-seven acres and fifty acres. Within the larger of these squares were four pyramids or platforms, one of which was nearly two hundred feet long and one hundred and thirty feet wide, with a height of ten feet. Three of these altar mounds had inclined passage ways to the altar summit, thus sug- gesting a racial affinity between the Mound Builders and the temple erecting people of early Mexico. From the center of the southwestern wall of this square en- closure there proceeded from the gateway by gradual descent, for a distance of seven hundred feet to the brink of the Muskingum River, a graded way or passage called by the first settlers, the "Via Sacra," one hundred and fifty feet broad and flanked by embankments from eight to ten feet high, with a base twenty-five feet in thickness. The smaller square mentioned above con- tained no temple altars, but from the southern entrance a wall passage, some three hundred feet in length, led to the entrance of the circle that enclosed the conical mound, some fifty feet high, with a base circumference of three hundred feet, a mound still preserved intact in the city cemetery.
Dropping down the Ohio to Portsmouth, the mouth of the Scioto brings us to one of the most remarkable series or systems of works in the state. The diagram aids in getting an idea of their uniqueness. A curious arrangement of circles, semi-circles and horse-shoe figures, are located east of the present city upon the terrace above the river. From this puzzling group, parallel walls extend two miles due west to no apparent destination, while a second pair of walls stretch south-
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
west to the city limits. Still a third set of parallel embankments, starting from the same central group, extend three miles southeast to the Ohio river bed. Immediately opposite the terminus of the Ohio graded way, the parallels are resumed on the Kentucky side, near the mouth of Tygart River, and continue a mile and a half to and into the center of a series of concentric earthen circles, four in number, the exterior, or outside, one of which is probably over a mile in circumference. These concentric circles are cut into four equal seg- ments by parallel walls making broad avenues each one of which leads to the conical mound erected in the inner enclosure. This river-divided scheme defies ex- planation, Squier and Davis after describing the works conclude: "And it is easy, while standing on its summit, [Kentucky conical mound] to people it with the strange priesthood of ancient superstition, and to fill its avenues and line its walls with the throng- ing devotees of a mysterious worship. Whatever may have been the divinity of their belief, order, symmetry, and design were among his attributes; if, as appears most likely, the works that most strongly exhibit these features were dedicated to religious purposes, and were symbolical in their design." Indeed it would seem that no other motive than religious zeal would impel a people to the creation of works so enigmatical and so vast.
As already noted, the southwestern portion of the state, the valleys of the Scioto and the Miamis, and the intervening territory, was the chief land of the Mound Builder, the region wherein "his name was legion." One of the probable theories concerning the
THE SCIOTO VALLEY.
Twelve miles of the Scioto Valley north from Paint Creek, showing the Harness Group, High Bank, Hopetown Works, Cedar Bank, Mound City and Dunlap Works, with lesser earth remains of the Mound Builders. The works formerly on the site of Chillicothe are all destroyed.
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
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Do Mains evenues and line is walls with the throng the strange pruthead of aminn superstition, and mmmil, WEceticky conical mmound) vo people it with mi lude: "And it Is me, while standing on its
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Ax already noted, the southwestern portion of the state, tire valleys of the Seloro and the Mamis, and the intervenlug territory, was the chief Land of the Mound Builder, the region wherein "bi name was legion." One of the probable theories concerning the
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
migratory course of this mysterious people, is that they came from the far South, up the Mississippi; thence ascended the Ohio and because of the equable climate, fertility of soil, suitable contour of land and advantages of the water courses, chose for their settlements the hill-tops and valley bottoms skirting the Ohio streams. The valleys of the Miamis give prolific evidence of the presence of the prehistoric man, as do also to lesser extent, the Sandusky and Cuyahoga, but the rivers flowing north into Lake Erie did not attract the abo- riginal man as did the rivers connected with the Ohio. Of this southern territory the Scioto valley, with its tributary streams, Brush, Paint, Deer and Darby creeks, and farther north the Olentangy, is the region by far the richest in the remains of his ancient occu- pancy. Here he lived and thrived,
" As free as nature first made man, Ere the base laws of servitude began, When wild in woods the noble savage ran."
In Scioto and Pike counties his "foot-prints" may often be found, but Ross county was the arena of his densest population and greatest activity. Squier and Davis, unquestioned authority, say they found one hundred enclosures of various sizes and five hundred mounds in this county. The site of Chillicothe, Ohio's first capital and in the vicinity of which the Indian found his favorite camping ground, was once the scene of a group of the walled enclosures of the prehistoric dweller, and clustered thereabouts are many of the greatest works of his genius. Ascending the Scioto, just before reaching the mouth of Paint Creek, one would pass on the right, some eight miles below Chillicothe, the
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THE RISE AND PROGRESS
"Harness group," consisting of a square of twenty- seven acres area, two circles, one of forty acres, the other eight, and two semi-circles, all curiously united. Two or three miles farther up the river, is the "High Bank" structure, characterized by a circle of twenty acres, opening into an octagon of nearly the same area; immediately adjacent are parallel walls, half a mile in length, with exterior circular accessories. Pushing our canoe another two miles up stream, we reach, on the terrace of the left bank, another variety of combined squares and circles, embracing altogether perhaps fifty acres. As we continue the journey the terrace lands, on each side, offer many single mounds and small figure enclosures. The territory west of Chillicothe, flanked by a tributary of Paint Creek, is dotted with the ever- recurring earthen works. Three miles above the city we pass, on the left, a very large circular enclosure, set some distance back on the upland, while on the edge of the terrace overhanging the river is "Mound City," an enclosed square, the wall, three to four feet high, each side of which is a thousand feet long, the corners of the same being rounded rather than angular; the enclosed area of thirteen acres is dotted with twenty- five conical or semi-spherical shaped mounds, explora- tions of which revealed altars and innumerable remains -- one of the richest fields of discovery for the excavator. On the opposite side of the river-the right as we proceed north-surmounting the river bank, is the famous "Hopetown Group," a circle of twenty acres tangent to a rectangle of the same size with two smaller contiguous circles; from this duplex figure there extend southwest to what was once the brink of the Scioto,
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