THE SERPENT MOUND SAVED.
IT gives us great pleasure to record
that a beginning has
been made in the work of effectually
preserving the mounds
and earthworks of our State. The celebrated Serpent
mound, on the Lovett farm, near the
northern border of
Adams county, has been purchased for the
Trustees of the
Peabody Museum of American Archaeology
and Ethnology
of Cambridge, Mass., and henceforth will
be sacredly pre-
served by them for the study of future
archaeologists. This
purchase has come about through the
enlightened interest of
Professor F. W. Putnam, curator of this
museum, and Pro-
fessor of American Archaeology and
Ethnology in Harvard
University. Upon observing the ravages
which time and
the elements were making with this most
valuable archaeolog-
ical relic, he called the attention of
some of his friends to
the importance of immediate action.
Professor Putnam's
own account of the steps toward the
purchase of this mound
are worthy of preservation. We quote
from a communica-
tion made by him to the Cincinnati
Post, June 4, 1887.
"Four years ago I visited the
famous Serpent mound in
Adams county. Last fall, in company with
Mr. Kimball, I
revisited the mound, and found that it
had suffered much
from wash-outs since my former visit. It
was evident that if
steps were not at once taken for its
preservation it would
soon be a thing of the past. This led me
to write a letter
which was published in the Boston
Herald, and was widely
copied by the press. About that time
Miss Alice C.
Fletcher, who is so well known for her
efficient work among
and for the Omaha Indians, and from the
papers she has
written relative to the Indians, knowing
of my desire to save
several of the prehistoric monuments of
Ohio from destruc-
tion, mentioned it at a lunch party of
Boston ladies in New-
port, and interested them to such an
extent that they
opened a correspondence with me, stating
that they were
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