Early Description of Mound City in Chillocthe, Ohio
American Anthropologist 1922
Their summary description of the group, from Ancient Monu-
ments of the Mississippi Valley (Smithsonian Institution, 1848)
is as follows:
Situated on the left bank of the Scioto River, four miles north of the
town of Chillicothe. The enclosure, designated from the great number of
mounds within its walls, "Mound City,** is in many respects the most
remarkable in the Scioto Valley. Through the generous kindness of Henry
Shriver, Esq., upon whose estate it is situated, the mounds were all permitted
to be investigated; and the work will, in consequence, be often referred to
in the course of this volume, particularly when we come to speak
of "mounds.*'
Early photo of the burial mounds at Mound City before they were levelled. The reconstructed mounds today are only a fraction of their original size.
In outline it is nearly square, with rounded angles, and consists of a
simple embankment, between three and four feet high, unaccompanied by
a ditch. Its site is the beautiful level of the second terrace, and it is still
covered with the primitive forest.
The first and most striking feature in connection with this work is the
unusual number of mounds which it contains. There are no less than twenty-
four within its walls. All of these, as above observed, have been excavated,
and the principal ones found to contain altars and other remains, which put
it beyond question that they were places of sacrifice^ or of superstitious
origin.
These mounds seem placed generally without design in respect to each
other, although there is a manifest dependence between those composing
the central group, and between those numbered 4 and 5 and 12 and 13.
From the principal mound numbered 7 in the plan, after the fall of the
leaves, a full view of every part of the work and of its enclosed mounds is
commanded. This mound is seventeen feet high with a broad base nearly
one hundred feet in diameter. The long mound. No. 3, is one hundred and
forty feet long by eighty wide at the base, and ten feet in average height.
Broad and deep pits, from which the earth for the construction of the mounds
was taken, surround the work.
Recent Aspects or the Group
At the time of the final exploration of Mound City, described
in this report, the entire site was occupied by the United States
army cantonment, Camp Sherman. Fig. 28 gives a view of it
before this change had taken place. Incident to the construction
of this great camp, the grading of streets and drilling-grounds and
the erection of barracks and other buildings resulted in unavoid-
able disturbance of the group. In a number of instances mounds
were completely removed, the earth composing them being used
for grading and filling and any specimens they may have con-
tained thus lost, or scattered among workmen. Others of the
mounds fared less disastrously, being disturbed in part only,
while one at least — the great central mound of the group —
suffered no damage whatever.
Of the total of twenty-four mounds recorded by Squier and
Davis, in the above description, only twelve — one-half the
original number — could be located or identified by the present
survey. Several of the smaller ones, it is known, had completely
disappeared under many years of cultivation of the land, while
the remainder had been obliterated in the construction of the
cantonment. What these mounds may have contained in the
Fig. 28.— View of Mound City Group before it was taken over by the U. S.
Government.
way of material evidence of their builders will never be known,
and the only record of their existence is that of Squier and Davis.
Mounds of which no trace remained are those numbered on their
map as follows: 1, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 14, 16, 19, 20, 21, and 22.
The condition of the mounds remaining for final exploration
was as follows: Mound No. 2, practically one-half entirely obliter-
ated, the remaining portion being graded off to within 6 inches of
its base; No. 3, the elongate mound of the central unit, disturbed
by extensive ramifications of the camp plumbing system; Mound
No. 7, intact, its removal having been forestalled by special
intervention of the camp commander, at the solicitation of the
Museum authorities; Mound No. 8, one-third graded off, to with-
in a few inches of the base; Mounds Nos. 9 and 12, much dis-
turbed by trenching for plumbing system; Mound No. 13, a part
of one side graded off, disturbing the most important burial
thereof; Mounds 15 and 17, very small structures, more or less
disturbed by grading; Mound No. 18, about one-half graded
down, but a considerable depth of soil left above the base; Mound
No. 21, very low, slightly disturbed; and Mound No. 23, fully
two-thirds removed, with no trace of floor remaining.
