Mysterious Golden Circles dating 3,000 B.C. on a Hancock County, Indiana Farm

Mysterious Golden (Crop) Circles dating 3,000 B.C. on a Hancock County, Indiana Farm

There are few things that make no sense from the archaeologists explanation of the golden circles on a Hancock county farm. They were said to be winter campfires, but they overlapped one another like a crop circle. Also, why would they be ringed with artifacts unless they represented some kind of 'offering." 

“A History of Hancock County Indiana in the Twentieth Century“, by Dorothy and Thomas Williams, 1995

Evidence of Hancock County’s Prehistoric Past

Esther Bodkins, in 1993, made provision for the preservation of Indiana artifacts found on her farm proving habitation of Hancock County back as far as seven thousand years ago. As Esther and her husband worked their farm near Fortville Pike, south of Sugar Creek, they began uncovering arrowheads, mortars, axes, scrapers.

Then the artifacts started appearing in a flood when the Bodkins’ plowed a pasture field that hadn’t been tilled within memory. That next Spring after the initial cultivation, the Bodkins’ were startled to notice that as the snow melted in this field, golden circles began to appear which overlapped each other. They thought this odd because the patterns didn’t fit with soil type.

These mysterious golden circles summoned the images of some strange visitation on their farm. As they looked more closely at the edges of the golden circles, they began finding more and more Indian artifacts. Close on the edges of the circles were rings of arrowheads, and shape rocks. As they examined them, it was clear the stones were the product of human hands.

That’s when the Bodkins’ called for expert opinions as to what they had discovered. The Black Institute at Indiana University, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and other agencies responded. The Bodkins’ had discovered an ancient Indian trading site on their farm. The golden circles were the remains of the huge ancient traders’ winter campfires.

The experts told the Bodkins that the trading site had been occupied for several thousands of years. Indians had trade there, come and gone. The times of use were far enough apart that the artifacts were from several different Woodland Indian civilizations which explains the many different types and styles of arrowheads and stone configurations found.

The Bodkins’ farm is a strange location for an Indian trading site. Nothing about it would given any reason to believe the site should be where it is. The best the experts could surmise was that the site was along an old Indian trail following Fortville Pike, a trail that the Woodland Indian tribes used as we do. Only thousands of years before we have used the route.

Among the finds were many different types of arrowheads, scrapers to work hides with, and trading forms.

The time of occupancy of the trading site was between 3000 B.C. to 1000 A.D. Ancient peoples had been present and left proof of their presence on the Bodkins farm long before the birth of Christ. The founding of Tome, or the happening of most Old Testament biblical accounts. It is not thought the site was used much after 1000 A.D. Strangely, no Indian village as such appears associated with the site, nor are mounds nearby.

And though some might hoard these wonderful treasures of history. Esther Bodkins did not. She purchased, at her own expense, a beautiful walnut case to house them and presented them as a gift to the Hancock County Historical Society and are now located in its museum in the basement of its Park Chapel meeting place in Riley Park.

American Indian Mound Builders in Hancock County, Indiana

EARLY NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN BURIAL MOUNDS IN HANCOCK COUNTY , INDIANA

Archaeological Map of the Early Native American remains in Hancock County, Indiana. University archaeologist did an archaeological survey of the county, where they removed over 700 artifacts, but left the county with no information of where any of the historic sites were located.  

Indiana Geology and Natural History (15th Annual Report),1885-1886

Archaeology

The Mound Builders have left but few traces of their occupancy of the territory embraced in Hancock County. Spear-heads, arrow-points, axes, and other stone implements, are occasionally picked up in cultivated fields, but I saw no mounds or tumuli in the county that I was reasonably certain were not of natural origin. There is, however, in section 11, township 16, range 7, some curious earthworks that probably belong to the age of the Mound Builders. These are located on the farm of Mr. H.F. Braddock, and lie on the south side of Brandywine, at the extreme point of a very abrupt bend of that creek. A ridge of clay land some ten feet above the creek bottom, and covered with oak timber, projects sharply into a piece of marshy land to within three hundred feet of the creek. From this point a levee, three feet high and ten feet wide, has been constructed to the ancient bed of the stream. The excavation which furnished the earth for this embankment is distinctly seen in the projecting point of high ground, and immediately back of this are three pits about eight feet in diameter and six feet deep, and east of these, about ten feet, are two other pits of the same dimensions, but not quite so deep. These works are evidently artificial and ancient, for large trees are now growing on the sides of these pits and on the embankment. About fifty yards east of these pits was formerly a small lake or pond, which may have been an excavation, but probably was natural. It is now drained. When, by what people, or for what purpose these works were made, we venture no conjecture.