Ohio History Journal

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EXPLORATIONS OF THE SEIP MOUND

EXPLORATIONS OF THE SEIP MOUND.

 

WILLIAM C. MILLS.

The Seip Mound is located within the largest prehistoric

earthworks of the Paint Creek Valley known as the Seip Group.1

One very large mound and another half its size enclosed

with earthworks, which form a combination of two circles and a

square, and five mounds situated outside the earthworks, but in

close proximity to them, constitute the Seip Group. This group

is located in Paxton Township, Ross County, about 3 miles east

of Bainbridge, a village situated in the extreme western portion

of the county. The mounds can readily be reached by convey-

ance, as the old Milford and Chillicothe Pike passes in sight of

the Works and the Detroit Southern Railway has a flag station

only a quarter of a milt away.

Paint Creek Valley has long been known for its beautiful

scenery and productive soil and is drained by Paint Creek, a

stream of irregular turbulence, crossing from one side of the

valley to the other until it finally empties into the Scioto River

south of Chillicothe. The mounds and earthworks comprising

this group occupy the greater portion of the rich agricultural bot-

tom land in the great bend formed by Paint Creek as it changes

its course from the north side of the valley directly to the south

side, where it follows the base of the foothills for some distance.

At the present time one can readily trace the circles, but the

square with its various openings cannot be so readily traced.

Yet, when the site is freshly plowed, the old walls are easily

traced by a slight elevation and the change in the appearance of

the soil. The mounds, which are all quite large, have deterior-

ated less than the earthworks, but the farm cultivation of the

few outside the walls has greatly reduced them in height. The

two mounds within the walls have suffered little by the encroach-

ment of agriculture. The largest of the two mounds is known

1Described by Squier and Davis in "Ancient Monuments of the

Mississippi Valley", pp. 4 and 58.

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