Ohio History Journal

THE RELATION OF THE GLACIAL PERIOD TO

ARCHAEOLOGY IN OHIO.

As yet no implements have been found in Ohio which can

certainly be ascribed to the glacial age. The hope that we

may yet discover pre-glacial instruments in Ohio, as we have

discovered pre-glacial wood, is, however, a sufficient justifi-

cation of this paper, if it shall succeed first in making clear the

relation of the glacial period to archaeological discoveries in

other portions of the world; and if, in the second place, it

shall call the attention of local observers in different parts of

the State to the class of implements likely to be found within

the limits of the State, and to the localities where special

investigations should be inaugurated; and third, if it shall

show the relations of glacial investigations in this region to

the question of glacial chronology, and so of the age of the

implements found elsewhere.

First, the relation in general. The general facts as to the

occurrence of a glacial period are so well known that I need

only allude to them. The evidence is conclusive that, at a

comparatively recent period, the northern portions of Europe

and America were covered with a vast mass of slowly moving

ice, pressing down from the direction of the north pole

towards the warmer latitudes. The origin of this ice (like

that of the glaciers still remaining in the Alps and other

mountain ranges, and still covering a large part of Green-

land), was doubtless in the continued accumulation of snow

over the glaciated region in excess of the melting power of

the summer sun. This implies a climate both cool and moist.

Into the speculations concerning the changed condition in

the meteorological forces, I need not enter.

The extent of the region over which this ice sheet spread

is now pretty accurately known. In the old world the

glacial covering extended over nearly the whole of the British

1A paper read before the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society

at the first annual meeting, February 18,1886

174

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The Glacial Period and Archaeology in Ohio.  175

Isles, and over all of the Scandinavian peninsula, and spread

far into Western Russia and Northern Germany.   From

the Alps, also, as a center, glaciers pushed on both sides,

far down beyond the present limits. The whole valley of

Switzerland, from the Alps to the Jura mountains, was full of

ice, so that boulders were carried from the one to the other.

In America the glacial sheet extended to the sea south of

New England, covering the site of New York. Westward

from New York city I have myself carefully traced in the

field the southern boundary of the glaciated regions as

far as the Mississippi. Beginning at New York city, and

omitting the minor features, the line marking this southern

boundary runs N. W. to Salamanca, N. Y., thence S. W. to

the neighborhood of Louisville, Ky., thence bending north

to the upper part of Brown county, Ind., thence S. W. to

Carbondale, Ills., and thence N. W. to the neighborhood of

St. Louis. To this limit the ice of the glacial period con-

tinued in its southern movement, grinding down the elevated

surfaces and filling up the depressions of the country, and

bringing its vast burdens of granite rocks from the north.

As it withdrew, the ice in melting left its enclosed solid

material which it had picked up along its long journey (con-

stituting the boulders and hard heads, or nigger-heads, as

they are sometimes called), to mark its former presence.

In the rear of the retreating ice there also appeared the

prairie region, which had been planed and leveled by the mov-

ing mass, and by the subsequent water deposits. The whole of

the region north of this boundary line is now covered with an

unstratified deposit of clay, sand, gravel and boulders. In

this so-called "till" the constituent elements are uniformly

of northern origin, and frequently from distantly separated

points, granitic pebbles from Northern Canada being mingled

in one indiscriminate mass with the local pebbles of Southern

Ohio, and with others from intervening points. Another

sign of glacial action consists in the striae or scratches which,

all over this region, characterize both the stones included

in the till and the surface of the underlying rock.

The special feature, however, to which our present subject

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176    Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly. would call attention, is found in the terraces which every- where mark the streams flowing southward from the glaciated area. Almost without exception, the streams flowing south- ward from this area show marks of former floods from fifty to a hundred feet higher than any which now occur. Gravel deposits from fifty to a hundred feet higher than the present flood-plain line the valley of everyone of these streams, not only where they lie within the glaciated region, but through much of their course after they have emerged from the glaciated into the unglaciated region.  In our own State these terraces are specially observable on the following streams and places:

Middle fork of Beaver, New Lisbon; Big Sandy Creek, east branch, East Rochester; Nimishillen, Canton; Tusca-

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The Glacial Period and Archaeology in Ohio.  177

rawas, Bolivar; Sugar Creek, Beech City; Killbuck, Millers-

burg; Mohican, Jefferson township; Owl Creek, Millwood;

Rocky Fork, Wilkin's Run; Licking River, Newark; Jona-

than Creek, Thorn township, Perry county; Hocking River,

Lancaster; Clear Creek, Clearport, Madison township, Fair-

field county; Salt Creek, Adelphi; Scioto River, Green

township, Ross county; Paint Creek, Twin township, Ross

county, and throughout the whole lower course of both the

Little and the Great Miami.

Second. It is in terraces of this description that the so-

called "palaeolithic" implements have been found; and as

there can be no question that this class of terraces was

formed by the floods which mark the closing portion of the

glacial period, the occurrence of human implements in their

undisturbed strata connects the early history of man with the

closing scenes of the glacial period. This being so, any

well-directed study concerning the glacial period is impor-

tant as shedding light upon the condition under which man

began his career and upon the time which has elapsed since.

The first discovery of human implements in glacial de-

posits occurred in the valley of the Somme, near Abbeville,

in Northern France. These were brought to light by Bouches

de Perthes nearly fifty years ago. The scientific world did

not credit his statement that they were found in undisturbed

strata until about twenty-five years ago, when several Eng-

lish geologists were so happy as to find implements in place

in the high gravel terraces near Abbeville. At once, when

attention was directed to the conditions in which these were

found, other implements of a similar type were found in sim-

ilar situations in various places in England. And some ten

or twelve years ago, Dr. Abbott, of Trenton, N. J., began to

find implements of a similar type in the extensive gravel

deposits near his home upon the Delaware River. It was my

privilege to visit the locality, five years ago, in company with

Professor Boyd Dawkins, of England, and Professor Haynes,

of Boston, both of whom are specialists in this line of inves-

tigation, and have spent much time in studying the localities

in Europe where palaeolithic implements have been found,

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178    Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly. and both were struck with the resemblance between the ter races of the Delaware, where Dr. Abbott finds his implements, and the terraces in the valley of the Somme, where Bouches de Perthes made his discoveries. From my own prolonged

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investigations since, I am perfectly confident that the gravel terraces on the Delaware have their counterpart in the various glacial terraces in Ohio, to which your attention has been directed.

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The Glacial Period and Archaeology in Ohio.  179

It is only rough stone implements of the type shown in

the accompanying plate, which are found in the situations

just mentioned, connecting them with the spring freshets of

the glacial period. Smoothed stone implements have never

been found in situations indicating anything like the antiquity

belonging to some specimens of the palaeolithic type.

It is exceedingly important for the interests of archaeology

that local observers, in various portions of Ohio, should

become thoroughly familiar with the facts just presented.

Heretofore the attention of collectors has been so generally

directed to the ordinary Indian type of flint implements, and

there has been such anxiety to obtain perfect specimens of

these, that implements of the palaeolithic type are likely to

have been overlooked. But, really, far more interest would

attach to a few implements of the palaeolithic type, if found

in undisturbed glacial gravel, than to the whole mass of

Indian implements which now fill our museums. We would

specially ask, therefore, that all persons living in the vicinity

of glacial terraces, where excavations are being made for any

purpose, would systematically and persistently look for

implements similar to these described.  Nor should the

observer be too easily discouraged. A rough implement

like these, lying in a great bank of gravel, is about as diffi-

cult to discover as a needle in a haymow. Only the eye that

is trained by long practice in exploration will be likely to

recognize such an implement amid its abundant surroundings

of pebbles and gravel. If, by good chance, any one should

discover such an implement, let him, if possible, secure a

photograph of it before its removal. At any rate, he should

spare no pains in noting its position and describing its sur-

roundings, and should call the attention of professional geolo-

gists to the facts as soon as possible, that everything may

be confirmed in the mouth of two or three competent

witnesses.

Aside from the discoveries of Dr. Abbott, at Trenton, N.

J., those of Miss Babbitt, at Little Falls, Morrison county,

Minn., are as yet the best authenticated instances of palaeo-

ithic implements found in glacial gravels.  Miss Babbitt's

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180    Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

specimens consist of numerous flakes and quartz fragments,

which, in the opinion of the best judges, show unmistakable

evidences of human workmanship. (See American Natural-

ist, June and July, 1884.) The specimens were found in

undisturbed gravel, three or four feet below the surface of a

glacial terrace, on the east side of the Mississippi valley, and

about twenty-five feet above the present flood-plain.

In our own State Mr. Reefy, of Elyria, has in his posses-

sion an implement of the palaeolithic type, supposed to come

from the glacial terraces lining Sugar Creek, in Tuscarawas

county, not far below the point where it emerges from the

glaciated region. But the original observations were not

sufficiently accurate to determine whether it was originally in

the gravel or merely upon the surface. Another of similar

type was found near by in an excavation in a cave. Several

years ago some implements of this character were found in

the vicinity of Columbus.

Third. Since palaeolithic implements are undoubtedly

found in glacial gravels, it becomes at once evident that the

archaeological interest of glacial studies in Ohio is by no

means wholly dependent upon the discovery of such imple-

ments in our own glacial deposits. But any investigation

bearing upon the date of the close of the glacial period, and

upon its physical geography, is of direct archaeological value.

It is of great interest to know that when man, in a state of

development similar to that of the Eskimo, was hunting the

mastodon, and the reindeer, and the walrus in the valley of

the Delaware, the ice-front extended in our own State as far

south as Cincinnati. At that time the moose, the caribou,

the musk ox, and reindeer ranged through the forests and

over the hills of Kentucky. And, if my theory of a glacial

dam at Cincinnati can be entertained, there was for a period

a long, irregular lake occupying the valley of the Ohio and

its tributaries, rising to the top of the bluffs in all the lower

portions of the valley above Cincinnati, and being as much

as three hundred feet deep at Pittsburg. The explorer at

that time, coming up from the south, would have encoun-

tered an ice wall along the line which I have marked as the

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The Glacial Period and Archaeology in Ohio.   181

glacial margin; and upon ascending it would have had before

him naught but such icy wastes as recent explorers have

found in the upper portions of Greenland, far along towards

the north pole. The forests and flowers south of this margin

were then also very different from those now covering the

area. From the discoveries of Professor Orton and others,

we infer that red cedar abounded all over the southern part

of Ohio. Some years ago a pail factory was started in the

neighborhood of Granville, Licking county, using as the

material logs of red cedar which were probably of pre-glacial

growth. There is record of similar pre-glacial wood in High-

land, Clermont and Butler counties, specimens of which can

be seen in the cabinet of the State University. In a few

secluded glens opening into the Ohio River above Madison,

Ind., where the conditions are favorable, arctic or northern

plants, which, upon the advance of the glacial sheet had been

driven southward, still remain to bear witness of the former

general prevalence. Among these may be mentioned Sul-

livantia Ohioensis and Pedicularis Canadensis.

Ohio also affords abundant opportunities for estimating

approximately the date of the close of the glacial period.

Light upon this question promises to come from three classes

of facts: 1st. The recession of waterfalls in streams whose

courses have been changed by the deposition of glacial debris.

Such streams occur most frequently in the northern part of

the State. The streams emptying into the Ohio River for

the most part occupy their old valleys, since they were, all

through the glacial period, the natural outlets of sub-glacial

streams; but in the northern part of the State, where the

streams flowed in an opposite direction from the ice-move-

ment, the change of the river beds has been almost universal.

The old channels were filled up with glacial debris, and, upon

the retreat of the ice, it was a mere chance whether the

rivers should flow in their former channels or not.

The former outlet for Lake Erie was so completely filled

and buried that its course is only conjectural. Before the

glacial period there were no Niagara Falls and no Lake Erie.

The recession of the falls from Queenston to their present

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182    Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

position represents all the work done since the glacial period

by that mighty agency, the Niagara River. The length of

the gorge is not far from seven miles. Upon comparing the

recent survey by the United States government with that

made by the New York geologists about 1840, there seems

little doubt that the rate of the recession of Niagara Falls is

as much as three feet per year; from which it would follow

that it is not more than 11,000 years since the Niagara River

began its work at Queenston. While other elements of the

problem would tend to reduce even that estimate to less than

7,000 years.

The various streams like Black, Rocky, Cuyahoga and

Chagrin rivers, afford similar, but more imperfect, oppor-

tunities to estimate this period. At Elyria the falls of the

Black River have receded since the glacial period a trifle

more than two thousand feet. We have not, from direct

observation, even an approximate estimate of the rate of

recession. But a rate of two inches a year would escape

observation for a long period, unless it had been conducted

with great care. A few years ago a mass of rock fell at

Elyria so great as to shake the whole town. Thus the under-

mining process may go on for a hundred years before its

effects will become visible. But with the present forces in

operation it would seem incredible that the average rate of

recession at Elyria should not be greater than one foot in

fifty years, which is the result obtained if, as many calculate,

the glacial period closed a hundred thousand years ago.

Dr. Gould, of Berea, Ohio, is studying a similar problem

in connection with Rocky River, whose pre-glacial bed, now

filled with glacial debris, has been traced for a distance of

twenty-five or thirty miles. Some gentlemen at Akron are

also, I understand, studying the gorge at Cuyahoga Falls with

the same end in view. It is of the greatest importance that

wherever there is a post-glacial waterfall or gorge, exact facts

should be obtained, and their meaning interpreted, so far as

they bear on chronology, and reported to the scientific world.

One of the most interesting problems, which I have myself

partially investigated, is furnished by the post-glacial gorge

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The Glacial Period and Archaeology in Ohio.  183

in the lower part of Paint Creek, near Chillicothe. The

nature of this gorge, and its relation to the glacial period,

was discovered by Professor Orton (see Geological Survey of

Ohio, vol. II, p. 653). The valley of Paint Creek is here

bearing to the north, and, as Professor Orton shows, there

can be no question that its northern outlet was obstructed by

the advancing ice of the glacial period, compelling the water

that accumulated in front of it to seek an outlet by a short

cut across a neck of Waverly sandstone which here extended

a few miles north of the southern extension of the ice.

Here, now, is a valley presenting a striking contrast to that

which was occupied in pre-glacial times. The pre-glacial

valley is not far from a mile in width; while this is scarcely

five hundred feet at the top, and less than that at the bottom;

and the small streams which flow into it from either side have

worn back scarcely six hundred feet, though the material,

consisting of two or three hundred feet of shale underneath

sandstone, is very favorable to rapid erosion. It can scarcely

be possible that these forces have been in operation in their

present position for many thousand years. Any one living

in the vicinity of Chillicothe, or having the leisure of a sum-

mer vacation, will confer a great favor upon the world by

conducting a careful series of investigations upon this gorge,

and reporting the facts and figures.

A second means of approaching this chronological prob-

lem is through a study of the valleys which have been worn

by streams of various sizes in the glacial deposit itself.

Two years ago, in the Baptist Quarterly (for July, 1884),

Professor Hicks, of Granville, reported the results of such an

investigation in the valley of Raccoon Creek, Licking county.

The present flood-plain of this creek is now bordered on

either side by gravel terraces about fifty feet high, which are

evidently the remnants of a deposit filling the whole valley

to that height, laid down by the swollen streams which

marked the closing of the glacial epoch. Since the glacial

period the present stream has been occupied with the task

of slowly removing this material. The number of cubic

yards which it has already removed can be approximately

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184    Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

estimated. The rate of removal is more difficult to deter-

mine. Assuming the rate to be the same per cubic foot as

that which is transported by the Mississippi River past New

Orleans, the time required would be less than fifteen thou-

sand years.

A similar estimate I have made for Plum Creek, the little

stream which passes through Oberlin, in Lorain county.

Plum Creek is about twelve miles long, and drains a basin

whose area is about twenty-five square miles. Its course is

all the way through a bed of till, there being no rocky

obstructions. The channel which it has worn I estimate to

average twenty feet in depth above its flood-plain, and five

hundred feet in width.

Calculating from these data, we have the following results:

The total amount of material eroded from the trough of

Plum Creek is 633,600,000 cubic feet. Estimating the rain-

fall at forty inches, and that one-half finds its way through

the channel, the annual amount is 1,161,600 cubic feet.

Now, accepting the estimate of Humphreys and Abbott for

the Mississippi River, that one foot of silt is carried away by

every 2,610 cubic feet of flowing water, we find that this in-

significant stream carries away 455,057 cubic feet of silt every

year.  Estimating that one-half of this comes from the sur-

face and tributary streams, it would require, at present rates,

only 2,846 years for the erosion of this valley. But allow-

ance must be made for the slower rate of erosion, when the

the country was covered with forests. This rate, however,

can hardly be reduced to more than one-third or one-fourth,

which would make the period not far from 10,000 years. It

is incredible that, with the effects produced, this stream should

have occupied its bed for a much longer period than that.

Another mode of approximately estimating the date of the

close of the glacial period, is from calculations concerning

the extent to which the lake basins have been filled up.

Thousands of years ago it was a mystery that, although all

the rivers ran into the sea, the sea was not yet full. That

mystery has been explained. But, upon obserying the

amount of silt carried by every stream which empties into a

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The Glacial Period and Archaeology in Ohio.   185

lake basin, the question meets us, why have not all our lake

basins been filled with solid material, which can not be evap-

orated? Millions upon millions of cubic feet of mud, sand

and gravel are annually carried by the streams into Lake

Erie, and yet Lake Erie is not full; and there are still in

Northern Ohio many smaller lakes receiving corresponding

deposits from the streams emptying into them. The reason

why these lakes are not full is that they have not always

existed; they are young, and in many cases their age can

doubtless be estimated by the extent to which they have

already been filled up. Since living in Ohio I have not been

favorably situated for conducting such investigations in this

particular line. But the result of investigations, such as might

be carried on in numerous places in Ohio, and as made by

myself upon a small lake basin in Andover, Mass., will be

found in my "Studies in Science and Religion," p. 342. The

attention of local observers is earnestly directed to that class

of investigations.

 

CONCLUSION.

From what has been said, I trust that it becomes apparent

that my subject is germane to the objects of this meeting and

Society.  Man co-operates with Nature, and the results of

natural and human forces are everywhere closely intermingled,

so that archaeology can not free itself altogether from geology.

I am so often asked concerning the relation of the Mound

Builders to the glacial period that it will not be out of place

for me to say here that the work of the Mound Builders is

very recent, as compared with the glacial period.   The

mounds and earthworks of the lost race which inhabited Ohio

before its discovery by Europeans, are all upon the surface,

being built when in the valleys, like our present cities, upon

the summits of the glacial terraces we have described, or

upon the present flood plains. The implements also con-

tained in these mounds are all of the modern type, differing,

in a marked degree, from the rough stone implements found

in New Jersey, Northern France and Southern England.

Without doubt, where the antiquity of the Mound Builders

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186    Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly.

s counted by hundreds of years, that of pre-glacial man must

be counted by thousands.

The intelligent prosecution of the lines of inquiry which I

have suggested can not fail to lead to important results, either

positive or negative. If, after years of patient investigation

by scores of observers, a single well-attested locality should

be discovered, like that of Trenton, N. J., where palaeolithic

implements are found in undisturbed deposits of glacial gravel,

the event would elicit the interest of scholars in all the world

and through all coming time. A failure to find such a locality

after sufficient examination, will also be significant in various

ways.

Let me repeat that the favorable points for investigation

abound along the valleys of all the streams emptying into the

Ohio river, and at various places along the Ohio itself.

Wherever excavations are being made in these glacial ter-

races it is to be hoped that some one will be upon the look-

out for the rude implements which were used by pre-glacial

man, and which may by chance have been buried in these

deposits and preserved for present study. The instrument

may be rude, and the flake but a fragment, but for all that

they may signify the presence of man, and may open a new

chapter in the early history of our race.

G. FREDERICK WRIGHT.

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