[Aztlan] The Ancient Ohio Trail Web site

[jglsharpe]

Speaking of historic places in Ohio, we recently digitized a book which
has some interesting observations of some earthworks along the Scioto
River, and along Paint Creek in Ohio, from 1804, published in 1864. See
page 28.

 http://www.archive.org/details/missiontoindians00hopk

"A
mission to the Indians, from the Indian Committee of Baltimore Yearly
Meeting, to Fort Wayne, in 1804" This is from the Darlington Collection
at the University of Pittsburgh.
Please excuse some of the cropping
of some images as the book had some condition/quality issues. The
illustrations and interest of the subject is amazing considering this
was a religious mission by the Friends.

Another book with a broader scope is this; http://www.archive.org/details/traditionsofdeco00inpidg

The Ohio chapters start at page 239. I recommend zooming this to at least 25% for best viewing.
"Traditions
of De-Coo-Dah, and antiquarian researches" 1858. This is also from the
Darlington Collection at University of Pittsburgh.

Jeff Sharpe
Internet Archive
Midwest Regional Scanning Center Coordinator
Located in the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

> From: casal at infotex.com.pe
> To: aztlan at lists.famsi.org
> Date: Sat, 8 Aug 2009 11:31:39 -0500
> Subject: [Aztlan] The Ancient Ohio Trail Web site
> 
> 
> 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).
> 
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