Sunday, October 13, 2019

Wakefield Indian Mound

Visited the mound cemetery this past week in Pike County, Ohio. Four distinct mounds that are all connected at their bases in a way I've never seen before. From what I've read they were built by the Adena people who lived the area from 1000 to 200 bc.  I was a bit disappointed to see gravestones on the mounds themselves till I looked a bit closer. The tallest mound is probably 30 feet tall and has a stone right at the peak. But the stone is pretty amazing too. Its the stone of Lt colonel John Guthery who was born in 1744 and died in 1823. He was in the Pennsylvania militia during the revolutionary war. In fact the whole section around the mounds are covered in graves dating to the 1800's. There are several revolutionary war, war of 1812, and civil war veterans buried here and it's just about the most interesting cemetery I've poked around in despite it's small size. The history just keeps going and going. In addition to the indian mounds and old gravestones the place is right at the confluence where an ancient stream connected to the Teays river. The Teays was like a preglacial version of the Ohio river and drained this whole part of the country. The New River and Kanawha in West Virginia follow the path of the Teays but then in it's lower reaches it ran more northerly than the Ohio river and the flowed North thru the valley the Scioto flows south in now. At the old confluence here the tiny Big Beaver Creek now joins the Scioto. As far as I know no real scientific work has ever been done at the mounds but back in the day some locals dug into one of the small mounds and found a girl buried there wrapped in bark. It's not more than a minute off route 32 so if you are out that way it's an easy and quick visit.












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