[Aztlan] The Ancient Ohio Trail Web site

[Mario Cabrejos]

Ancient Ohio Trail
Travel overland or via the Web to the historic places of south-central Ohio
By Stephanie Woodard
Jul 14, 2009
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/48067157.html

A new Web site, ancientohiotrail.org, offers a 21st century way to discover
little-known historic places in the wooded hills and lush farmland of
south-central Ohio: Hundreds of Native American earthworks ranging in age
from 550 to 3,000 years old. Hidden in plain sight in cities, towns, fields
and even backyards are solitary mounds, or artificial hills; animal forms
sculpted into hilltops; and monumental earthen-walled complexes in the form
of precisely sculpted circles, octagons, squares and free-form shapes
enclosing scores, or even hundreds, of acres.

The Web site provides maps, photographs, links to tourism information, a
free travel brochure, and videos you can watch on a computer (choose MP4
format) or download to your cell phone. The electronic Ancient Ohio Trail
was put together by a consortium, including University of Cincinnati's
Center for the Electronic Reconstruction of Historical and Archaeological
Sites, Ohio State University's Newark Earthworks Center, and Ohio Historical
Society. The easy-to-use site is worth a visit; junior high and high school
teachers will find it an attractive, informative, respectfully written
classroom tool.

It's important to get information about these sites to the public, according
to Carol Welsh, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate and executive director of Native
American Indian Center of Central Ohio. "Native people can take pride in
them, and they show non-Native people the richness and complexity of our
heritage." She and her husband, Mark Welsh, Ihanktonwan Dakota and NAICCO
program director, are part of a team assembled by the Newark Earthworks
Center to give tours of sites in Newark, Ohio.

"It may not be widely understood that Ohio was once a center of Indian
country," said Marti L. Chaatsmith, Comanche/Choctaw and program coordinator
of the Newark Earthworks Center. "Indigenous people lived here long before
2000 BCE and built earthworks into the landscape to mark the progression of
the moon or the sun with ceremony."

At once massive modifications of the land and masterpieces of subtlety, the
grass-covered forms rise gently from their surroundings. Some of the
best-known - the Newark Earthworks, Serpent Mound, Fort Ancient and Hopewell
Culture National Historical Park/Mound City, all in south-central Ohio - are
being considered for inclusion in UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites,
where they would join the Great Wall of China, Chartres Cathedral and other
notable places.

The ancient Ohioans' imagination encompassed not just architecture and
astronomy, but also the adornment of their personal and ritual lives. They
made shirts and dresses of hide and woven plant fibers and embroidered them
with thousands of freshwater pearls and shells. They also fabricated stone
statuary and pipes, copper jewelry and headdresses, trumpets and other
musical instruments, pottery and ghostly open hands made from sheets of
translucent mica. Though the ancients left no written language to let us
know what they called themselves or how they thought of their vast and
varied material culture, they survive in the oral histories of contemporary
Native communities.

"Native people who recognize their blood connection with the ancients
quietly visit these sacred places with prayers, sage, and tobacco to honor
the ancients who built them, and to let the spirits know they are not
forgotten," Chaatsmith said.

Here's a quick look at what you'll find on the Ancient Ohio Trail. Recent
budget cuts have meant that open hours have been curtailed; before you go,
check current days and times:

Newark Earthworks: The Octagon

For two millennia, the Octagon has framed a view of the lunar standstill:
The moment when the moon rises at the northernmost point of its 18.61-year
cycle. In 2006, I watched this moment with a small group organized by the
Newark Earthworks Center. Surrounded by the hulking walls, we faced the
opening in the Octagon through which the moon would appear. Behind us was
the flat-topped mound where the ancients likely stood to watch this event.
Just after midnight, a brilliant white crescent soared into the velvet-black
sky. This experience has, however, been clouded by contention since 1910,
when a country club leased the site and began building a golf course on top
of the earthworks. The course remains in use to this day, to the
consternation of many. (125 North 33rd St.; Newark, Ohio 43055; (740)
364-9584; earthworks at osu.edu)

Newark Earthworks: The Great Circle

Inside this immense walled enclosure, you feel far from the modern world,
though you're in the middle of a busy city. The Octagon and the Great Circle
were once part of the world's largest set of geometric earthworks. The
grouping covered four square miles and encompassed many other forms, now
mostly gone, including parallel walls that were likely ceremonial
passageways. Native people tend to agree with archaeologist Bradley Lepper,
who believes that one of the passages extended 64 miles to connect with
earthworks in Chillicothe. Recently archaeologist William Romaine reported
that on the summer solstice this passage matches the path of the Milky Way.
(455 Hebron Road, State Route 79, Heath, Ohio, 43056; (740) 364-9584;
earthworks at osu.edu)

Serpent Mound

This 1,000-year-old, 1,330-foot-long snake is the largest effigy earthwork
in the world. Sculpted into a grassy hilltop, its gently rounded coils are
about 20 feet wide and three feet high and align with various celestial
events. A footpath leads you along its body to the head, which overlooks
gently rolling hills and aligns with the summer solstice sunset. Once at the
head, you'll see that the snake's open mouth is swallowing something oval.
(3580 Route 73; Peebles, Ohio 45660; (937) 587-2796; www.ohiohistory.org)

Fort Ancient

Around 2,000 years ago, using deer shoulder blades and other tools, this
place's builders sliced the top off an hourglass-shaped 125-acre bluff.
Using the resulting 553,000 cubic yards of dirt, they enclosed the space -
one basket-load at a time over several centuries - with 18,000 feet of
undulating earthen walls. Today, as in ancient times, you enter via a
gateway at the site's north end, proceed through the northern lobe of the
hourglass, traverse a narrow, walled-in land bridge, and finally arrive at
the southern lobe. There the site opens up to a glorious, panoramic view of
the wooded river valley below. (6123 State Route 350; Oregonia, Ohio 45054;
(513) 932-4421 or (800) 283-8904; www.ohiohistory.org).