Regional History
By: Jeffrey Neill
Our region is where Ohio,
West Virginia, and Kentucky meet at the Ohio River. Four of the ancient indian periods (PaleoIndian, Archaic,
Woodland, and Fort Ancient) lived in this region beginning 10-12,000 years ago. Five different sites in this region are:
Camden Park Mound, Forest Home Farm Site Complex, Portsmouth Murals, Horseshoe
Mound, and Great Serpent Mound.
The Camden Park Mound is located near the center of
Camden Amusement Park in Huntington, West Virginia. It is approximately 15.5 miles from Ashland, Kentucky. It is a conical shaped mound about 20 feet
high. This mound can be seen when you
visit the park.
Squire and Davis map of Old Fort Earthworks (Forest
Home Farm) drawn in 1848. (Courtesy
of Dwight Cropper)
Another regional site is the Forest Home
Farm Site Complex in South Portsmouth, Kentucky about 33 miles west of Ashland,
Kentucky. It is across the river from
Portsmouth, Ohio in Greenup and Lewis Counties, Kentucky. This site is located on a family owned
farm. You must have permission to visit
it. This site is known as The Old Fort
Earthworks. The Earthworks is made up
of dirt walls that make a square. Mr.
Dwight Cropper, archeologist, explained that the walls were made of basket loads
of dirt. These mounds were made by the
Hopewell about 2000 years ago. No one
really knows how mounds were used. One
possibility is for ceremonial reasons.
Opening
in the center of the southwest wall.
Courtesy
of Dwight Cropper.
The
Portsmouth Murals are located in downtown Portsmouth, Ohio, about 35 miles
northwest of Ashland, Kentucky, on Rt. 23.
The Murals, painted on the Ohio River floodwall, represent a visual
timeline of the history of the city of Portsmouth. One of the Murals shows the
mounds that used to be in this region and it had pictures of different
artifacts.
There is a mound in the shape of a 
horseshoe
in Mound Park located on 17th Street in Portsmouth, Ohio. This mound was believed to have been built
by the Hopewell Indians. A drawing by
archeologist, E.G. Squier, in 1847 shows that there used to be two horseshoe
shaped mounds.
The most well known site in our region is Ohio’s Great
Serpent Mound in Adams County. It is about
77 miles northwest of Ashland, Kentucky.
The Great Serpent Mound is an effigy mound and is about 1,330 feet long
and 3 feet high. This site is open to
the public. It is not known when this
site was built, but some think is was built by the Adena culture around 800
B.C.- 100 A.D. and others think the Fort Ancient culture built it in 100 A.D.
to 1650. Some astronomers think it
represents the constellation, The Dragon.
Its purpose is still not known.
It’s a mystery.
Courtesy
of the Ohio Historical Society
There are other
sites in our region and some are: Adena
Park near Lexington, Kentucky, Marietta and Newark Earthworks in Ohio, and
the South Charleston mound in West Virginia.