Ohio History Journal

A VISIT TO FORT ANCIENT.

 

 

 

FELIX J. KOCH, CINCINNATI.

[For some two weeks in the Summer of 1910, a portion of the

Ohio National Guard encamped at Fort Ancient, and during their

evolutions enacted a sham siege of the Fort. This interesting incident

led to many comments in the newspapers concerning the modern

military movements in the fortress that doubtless witnessed scenes of

barbarian warfare centuries ago. In an article brought out by the

incident above mentioned Mr. Felix J. Koch, the distinguished maga-

zine and newspaper writer, speaks as follows concerning Fort An-

cient.-E. O. R.]

 

A little matter of two thousand years, more or less, is of

no concern when history takes it into her head to repeat her-

self; and so, while it was at perhaps the time that the Egyptians

were setting up the Pyramids, that here in the Western Hemis-

phere, the Mound-builders were waging bloody warfare at Ft.

Ancient, where they had their largest fortress; today the Ohio

National Guard have selected the same place as seat of their en-

campment and maneuvers.     So history is repeating herself at

Ft. Ancient; though the manner of the war of today and of that

other day is a trifle different.

A little jaunt to Ft. Ancient is one of the most delightful

outings in the world, - notably in the autumn or the early spring-

time. The quickest way is by rail to Ft. Ancient Station, from

Cincinnati; or else, if one have an eye to scenery, via Morrow,

and then drive over-land.

En route, you look up data about the fortress, -or you

may procure a little guide on the grounds. Modern Ft. Ancient

is just a sleepy river hamlet, a town of a tavern, before

which gather village-wise acres, to concern themselves rather

with the corn-crop and the pumpkin harvest and the sums made

from summer campers on the Miami, than with the discussion

of matters aboriginal. Still, there is a surfeit of literature on

Ft. Ancient. Away back in 1809, the reports go,-mention

was made of the Fort.

(248)

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A Visit to Fort Ancient.             249

 

Since then, as explorations were made, there has been much

else. All in all, some 628,000 cubic yards of excavation have

been accomplished on the fortress, - and as a result, it stands

now almost as in primitive times.

The earth-works follow the edge of a plateau, approaching

within a quarter mile of the Little Miami at its eastern ex-

tremity, where it is nineteen feet higher than on the western

edge. The hills come within two hundred and ninety and three

hundred feet of each other,--above the pocket in which the

fort reposes, just allowing sufficient space for river and rail

to pass, and, not alone that, but the plateau stands almost three

hundred feet above low water. It is, therefore, evident that the

fort was well nigh impregnable.

The embankments making up Ft. Ancient seem to have

been made to form several distinct divisions. There is, first,

the new fort,-lying north of a narrow isthmus; the great

gate-way, dividing the mounds at the south end of that pas-

sage; and the crescent gate, formed by the wing-walls, and the

middle fort--and area enclosed by a sickle-shaped gateway.

The total distance around these earth-works is not less than

18,712 feet, although a bee-line, from the east end to the west

measures just 993.

Statistics, however, are both tiring and non-communicative.

You ride from the village up a steep hill, -through the

forest, -to the knoll on which stands the fort. An osage-

hedge has been set around the place,- bearing the simple

words, "Ft. Ancient". You take a path leading down through

a well-defined system of mounds, -dotted over with ancient

beech trees. Beyond, the meadow gives place to denser forest,

and in this all attempt at tracing the plan of the mounds seems

futile. They wind and turn and writhe and twist beyond fol-

lowing by any save the antiquarian. Sight-seers, for the most

part, here, are picnickers,-and for their benefit, the Ohio His-

torical and Archaeological Society has erected a frame shelter-

house among the mounds, "For use; not abuse!". This very

forest seems hedged in with primitive walls, following the line

of ravines and separating it from pasture-lands beyond.

One wonders the purpose of all these earth-works. None

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250       Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.

 

is better fitted to speak on this subject than he who explored

them best, -Prof. Moorehead, of Saranac Lake.

"Ft. Ancient", he says, "is considered to have been erected

for purely defensive purposes and not as having been used for

residence for any great length of time. Its connection with the

Scioto Valley earth-works is to be doubted, and it seems to occupy

a rather isolated position. I have always therefore thought that

the village-folk of ancient Madisonville, and those of other sites

along the Little Miami, used the fort as a common rendezvous.

Possibly they came from as far as Aurora, Indiana. Alexanders-

ville, Foster's, Milford, southern Brown county, and the mouth

of the Great Miami, at all of which places there were earth-

works. The fort is believed to have been erected by the Short-

head or southern people."

Who were these people? Whence did they come? Whither

have they gone? It is the interesting riddle of Ohio.

Centuries, - aeons, - ago, we know, the ice-lake occupied

what is now this fertile vale. Still, no gravel pits or other glacial

evidence has been produced on the other side of the Miami,

and it is strange, indeed, that the glaciers should have stopped

just here. The lime-stone all about is exceptionally rich in fossil

crinoids and trilobites.

How long after the ice melted, and the rivers flowed was

it before the Red Man put in his appearance? Came he from

the north-ward, as so many think; having crossed over Behring

Strait, -out of Asia; where mounds such as that one near

Peebles are found? Or, was he of indigenous or even southern

origin ?

There are those who hold man to have originated in North

America. Simple is this theory, - that he crossed to Asia, and

then Africa and Europe. Much simpler than that from Asia

he should have gone both east and west, and still left no record

of his passage.

At any rate, -this earlyman was a worker. Possibly that

is why he settled in Ohio, a State noted for industry. Let some

of the early registrars tell of these labors at Ft. Ancient.

It took two skilled surveyors and a gang of laborers, six

weeks to complete surveys made here for the State. What did

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A Visit to Fort Ancient.              251

 

they find, - or rather not find? There was a moat, - extending

south-west from the two mounds to the left of the fort walls, -

which remains of pottery and bones make it probable, was lined

with wig-wams, from which refuse was thrown into the moat.

Then there are bastions, - some with a breadth of base of

seventy feet and a height of just ninety, and there are but

tresses of lime stone, the boulders in these of fifteen or sixteen

pounds weight. Three parallel walls within the fort, we are

told, have a length of over 2,700 feet, and there is a three-

walled platform close beside, that measures 85 by 110 by 150

feet.

Think of the labor involved in making such a bastion, even

today. And these artisans had nothing but their hands, and the

primitive tools found in the mounds.

One admires them the more one inspects it. Five and three

quarter miles of terraces, ten and 17-52 miles of earth-works in

all. - Could they be set in line! All built to last through ages,-

built to survive, as none of our structures of the present will!

A single protective gate-way here is constructed of forty pound

rocks, and affords a three-mile perspective.

The finds inside the fort are scarcely less interesting. Graves,

there, were lined with lime-stone and set at a distance of about

two feet and a half from the surface. Skeletons had an average

length of five feet six, -and these were seldom buried alone.

Implements of pottery and flint accompanied the bodies very

largely. There were mica-disks and fish-scales, pottery and

celts, and while there were some flint knives, the nature of the

tools was such as to lead archaeologists to believe that but little

cereal food was consumed, and that these mound-builders were

practically cannibals. The bones of seventeen different animals

have been discovered so far. Some of these lie so near the

surface as to seem to indicate burials, after a sudden and de-

cisive battle.

Then for perhaps five feet, there are no remains. After

that, the ruins of a second, more ancient village are evident.

Every visitor to Ft. Ancient has his theory. Some find

in the outline of the fort a tracing of the American continent.

Others, founding their theories on Esdrac, put this people down

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252      Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications.   as the tribe expelled from Assyria. Still others would have them to be maroons from the ships of King Solomon, when on the three year cruises. And still others would make of them Japan- ese sent by adverse currents to this land. As to their fate, some would believe them simply the ancestors of our Indians. Whether this be so or not, -who knows ? Only the mounds, - and they keep the secrets locked within their leafy bosoms.

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