The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1869-08-04
FORT ANCIENT, OHIO.
Past and Present.
To the Editor of the Commercial.

I
! Past and Present. HoIin55 i1a
To the Editor of the Commercial: r,
| 1t would be strange, indeed, tE,
among the present residents of Cincin-
natl, there are not many who have
visited the remarkable ruins at Fort
Ancient, and have wondered ut our
complete ignorance of the natives who
built that great fortress. To those
who have not visited this relic of the
ancient history of America, we would
suggest that neither Rome nor GSeese,
nor yet Egypt nor India, offer amy
thing more worthy of the attentive
study of the historian than do those
same silent mounds of earth, that are
found here and there in the valleys of
the tributaries of the Ohio. The sta
ton of Fort Ancient, on the Little
Miami Railroad, is but thirty-odd
miles from Cincinnati, and five min
utes' walk up the adjacent hill brings
one face to face with the finest of all
the Notifications that remain to us
from the times of the mound build
ers. '', ~
Many Will visit IT this spot from mo-
tives of curiosity, and will return no
wiser than they went; our own visit
was that of young student of arch
zoology, and, before setting forth some
of the results of our observations, we
will preface our remarks by express
ing the hope that many others will, in
a like studious spirit, examine these
and similar remains, and will be so
fortunate as to add much to our scan
ty knowledge of the agricultural ma
ton who inhabited this rich country
long before the present Indian races
had overspread the land. ,3 ii
THE ENTRANCE.
Provided with tracing of the map
published by the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, from the survey of Dr. John
Locke, we followed the Lebanon and
Chillicothe turnpike at a steep ascent,
until we found ourselves up the top OF
the hill, and entering cut through q
high embankment, a broad, level field
is seen spread out before ms. We have
entered through forced opening, the
original gateway being almost directly
opposite to US across the broad field.
This field is merely the top of hill.
1t contains some twenty acres or more,
and is joined on the south to similar
field of greater extent by a narrow
peninsula. The whole area of per-
haps sixty acres is bounded on the
west by a steep descent to the bottom
lands and the Little Miami; on the
north and south and southeast by very
precipitous ravines, cut out by the
streams that fill their bottoms. On
the northeast, however, the ground
spreads out for miles in undulating
fields a..f t,gs
The embarkments of the fortress
crown every pecipitous rayine, cross
ing every ridge and spur, heading OFF
every incipient stream that has it's
rise on the hill. Thus the fortifica-
ton is rendered impregnable from ey-
cry side, except from the northeast,
and here the embankments are of ex-<
ira height and thickness and steepness.
One who realizes the difficulty of
defending four miles of fortifcations
will wonder what could have induced
a people whose only weapons were
stone arrows and hatchets to have built
so large fort when it would have
been far more convenient to have in
closed merely the southern peninsula, +,
and thus have been completely pro-
tected on all sides by deep raviness
leaving only one vulnerable spot, and
that scarcely two hundred feet broad. ;
Now, it is not only ariori probable
that, at the beginning, the South6rni
portion of the fortress was Sufficient
for the use of the people; but, in the
structure of the earthworks, the depth
of the ravines and the thickness OF
the turf, as well as in the presence %
the walls and mounds defending the
entrance to the southern half of the
fortifcation, we detect the evidences
that this latter actually was inclOsedt
at a period long anterior to that time,
when the growth of the town necessi-l
tated the extension of its walls to in
cIude the northern portion of the fort.
The extent of the inclosure, as welH
as its permanent character, demon
strate, beyond peradventure, that IT.
was used for several generations, and,
if the fact of it's having been enlargeG
at some time during its occupation be,
then we can not doubt that
there was here not merely fort, but
a fortified town, whose population,
more than doubled in the course of its;
existence. That the fort was not ~
mere hasty erection, built but to be,
is apparent at q glance,
and the idea becomes more and more
-