Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1874 — The Mound-Builders of Ohio. [ARTICLE]

The Mound-Builders of Ohio.

The first settlers of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys found various forms of earthworks in the solitudes of the wilderness overgrown with dense forests. It is said that Ohio alone has 10,000 of these in the form of mounds of various sizes, and 1,500 inclosures are scattered through the State. They are found in Illinois, Wisconsin and other Western States, and in the Gulf States, varying in size. Some are small hillocks two or three feet high, while others assume almost pyramidal magnitude, like the, mound at Caliokia, 111., which has a base of more than six acres, a summit “of TteSTT ly five acres in area and a height of ninety feet. One of the most elaborate of all these works is located at Newark, Ohio. It is labyrinthine in structure, containing some fifteen miles of embankment, and after years of investigation archaeologists can do no more than surmise as to what - its uses were. Clearly it cannot have been built for architectural purposes, for the inclosures of which it principally consists have the ditches on the inside of the embankment, while the outside presents no visible obstacle to an invading army. One Of the largest of these inclosures, and the best preserved, is known as the “ old fort,” and stands one and one-half miles southwest of the city of Newark. It consists of a circular embankment of more than a mile in circumference, entirely unbroken except on the side toward the city, where a mammoth gateway, 100 feet wide, was constructed by the builders. On each side of this passage the ends of the embankment project a little from the center of the inclosure and rise to a height of twenty-five feet, while the general height is about eighteen. Upon this embankment, and within the ditch on the inside, the trees are as large as those upon the undisturbed portions of the ground around and within the fort. The citizen still lives in Newark who cut an oak tree upon this bank sixty-two years ago which numbered over 650 rings of annual growth. From this mammoth gateway two parallel walls of earth, a few rods apart, lead to a rectangular inclosure over half a mile to the northeast, which has an area of about twenty acres; beyond which, nearer the city, are still other works, traces of which are somewhat jobUterated. From this network near the city two sets of parallel walls run west more than two miles to another inclosure in the form of an octagon, containing about fifty acres, to the southwest of which, and almost joining it, is another circle about equal in size to the “ old fort.” Both of these are situated on a range of hills. The plowshare has performed its work of demolition to some extent upon the Walls of these latter inclosures, with the exception of one point in the circular embankment. This consists of earth and stone somewhat irregularly built to the height of twenty-five feet, and, as it lies to the extreme southwest of the whole system of works, it is thought by some that this was the watchtower or signal station on the west. When, by whom, and for what purpose these mammoth works were built, are puzzles which have always baffled the skill of archeologists. It is evident that they were built long ages ago, for where the timber has not been removed by civilized man, as in the case of the “ old fort,” dense forests covered the works, which must have required a thousand vear3 to grow where they now stand. It is not altogether unreasonable to suppose that generation after generation of forests hat- grown and decayed upon this soil since it was built by the dusky savages into the form we now find it. Also oth#r things’go to prove the antiquity of these works. The Indian had no knowledge or tradition concerning their erection. Skulls found at the bottom of some of these mounds differ greatly from those of the Indian. Also a species of hemp cloth has been found in some of them, a thing unknoMn to the Indian. From these and many other facts one may reasonably conclude that they were erected by a race of people anterior to the Indian race, whom by common consent we will call the Mound-Builders. For M’hat purpose these works were constructed has not been satisfactorily settled. Some have the appearance of military structures; others look as though they were built for purposes of observation, while still others seem to have ■ been designed for religions or burial purposes. Some mounds have the ; form of birds, serpents, alligators, !or other animals. The “ old fort” at i Newark has a mound in the center sevI era! feet high and about fifty feet long, j built in the shape of an eagle with spread | wings. Upon removing the earth from the top of this mound charred wood and ashes were discovered. What this indicates it is difficult to tell. Perhaps the priest of some mighty nation once offered sacrifice upon this mound in the presence of the assembled thousands. Or it may have been here the concluding ceremony of some national game was performed. Notwithstanding the manner of constructing the works, their appearance is decidedly military. It takes

but little imagination to fill that vast arena with dusky savages, or to believe that the wall was once thronged with a dark array. Perhaps that mighty gateway witnessed the final struggle of an extinct race. One of our bestmstdriana says: ‘ 4 The American Indian, when nr*t known to the whites, was destitute of all knowledge of the arts and sciences.” It certainly was no barbaric skill that could trace out those perfect circles, or survey those rectangles and octagons, much leas control the tens of thousands of laborers that must have been necessary to construct these earthen walls. But it is all a mystery. One can only wonder that such a mighty people should so completely pass away as to leave no trace of their history but these piles of earth.— Newark {Ohio) Cor. N. Y. Tribune.