Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1908-11-05


they may have been merged into the
Natchez of the Lower Mississippi Val
lev, or the Mayas of Yucstan, or the
Aztecs of Northern Mexico. Volumes
have been written to show how Amer
lea was originally peopled and still no
satisfactory solution of the problem
has been reached. On the contrary,
these contain little less than a mass of
contradictions. Certain it is, we may
trace these people here. there, and
everywhere by the mounds they have
reared and by the weapons, utensils,
implements and ornaments, found
therein or scattered over the surface
of the land. or dug from the sands and
gravel-beds of the rivers.
On what was long known as Grave
Greek Flats, in what is now Marshall
county, West Virginia, they reared
Mammoth Mound. 1t has given a
Observation-Disclosures the modern
city which surrounds it. 1t is now
sixty-nine feet high, the top having
been graded off somewhat for plat
form, and in the shape of the frustum
of cone, having circumference of
three hundred yards at the base and a
diameter of fifty feet at the top. 1t is
a vast monument to the industry Of
the ancient inhabitants of the Ohio
Valley ; masterpiece Of the works of
antiquity a tremendous memorial of
the aboriginal life of bYgone people.
Standing there alone in its majesty it
marks the site of an ancient metropo.
lis of the Mound. builders of this re-
gion and may rest upon ruins still
more ancient than itself. 1t was dis
covered in ITO, by Joseph Tomlinson,
the first pioneer settler who reared his
cabin on the Grave Greek Flats While
hunting in the vicinity, he came sud
denly to what seemed to be hill
which reared it's steep, cone-shaped
form before him with its summit among
the tree-tops Of the surrounding forest.
Ascending it he stood that day upon
America most noted artificial mound.
From that time to the close Of the
century. many persons stood upon it
and gazed in admiration and wonder
upon the surrounding scene. Henry
Rowe Schoolcraft, the historian, as
cended it in 1878; Joseph Doddridge,
author of the Settlement and Indian
Wars of Western Virginia and Penn
sylvania," was on it in l8l9 and
they, with many others, have left to
US their descriptions of it. When was
it built2 What is its age2 None
know, nor ever will know. Tomlinson
stated that when he discovered it the
growth of timber thereon was as large
and dense as any Of the surrounding
forest. Names and dates were cut
npon some of these one of the latter,
in the bark of a large beech tree, be.
ing that of 1884. A gigantic oak tree
which stood upon the summit was
felled some years afterwsrd, and by
counting the corticsl layers or growths,
its age was ascertained to be more
than FIVE hundred years; and thua
fixing the time when the tree began TO
grow, at the beginning of the thir-
teenth century, or nearly two hundred
years before Columbus discovered
America. Even conjecture can not
point out the time when the mound
was erected. 1t may have been old
when the Pyramids Of Egypt were be-
ing built, or when Cleopatrs's Needle
was being fashioned. 1t remains for
some other Champollion to exercise his
ingenuity in ascertaining the period of
erection and uses OF these monuments.
This Mammoth Mound, the greatest
monument of antiquity in the Ohio
Valley, is in West Virginia-stsnds in
the very heart of a fourishing West
Virginia city-aud it should never be
destroyed. Will not the nine thou
sand teachers, the three hundred and
6fty-two thousand school children, the
one million citizens Of wealthy State
representing its scholarship and in
telligence-see to it that this great
Mound shall continue as an attraction
for the admiration Of the generations
to come after us2 So may it be.
In 1883 stone, upon which curious
characters were carved, was found in
the mound. These bieroglyphics, if
they may be so called have never been
deciphered, although they have been
sent to learned societies in various
parts of the world The stone is now
In the Smithsonian Institute at Wash
ington, having been sent there some
years ago through the efforts of DR..