STONE HEAPS.

Rude heaps of stone, occasionally displaying some degree of regularity, are not uncommon at the West, though by no means peculiar to that section of country. It is exceedingly questionable whether any of them belong to the same era with the other works here treated of, although they are usually ascribed to the mound-builders. The stone mounds, of which mention has already been made, are very different structures, and should not be confounded with these rude accumulations.

One of the most remarkable stone-heaps observed in the course of these investigations, is situated upon the dividing ridge between Indian and Crooked creeks, about ten miles south-west of Chillicothe, Ohio. It is immediately by the side of the old Indian trail which led from the Shawanoe towns, in the vicinity of Chillicothe, to the mouth of the Scioto river; and consists of a simple heap of stones, rectangular in form, and measuring one hundred and six feet in length by sixty in width, and between three and four in height. The stones are of all sizes, from those not larger than a man’s head, to those which can hardly be lifted. They are such as are found in great abundance on the hill slopes,—the fragments or debris of the outcropping sandstone layers. Some are water-worn, showing that they were brought up from the creek, nearly half a mile distant; and although they were disposed with no regularity in respect to each other, the heap was originally quite symmetrical in outline. The stones have been thrown out from the centre, and an excavation of considerable depth made in the earth beneath, but without results. The heap is situated upon the highest point of land traversed by the Indian trail; upon the water-shed, or dividing ridge, between the streams which flow into Brush creek on the one side, and the Scioto river on the other.

Another heap of stones of like character, but somewhat less in size, is situated upon the top of a high, narrow hill, overlooking the small valley of Salt creek, near Tarlton, Pickaway county, Ohio. It is remarkable as having large numbers of crumbling human bones—to say nothing of living black snakes—intermingled, apparently without order, with the stones. A very extensive prospect is had from this point. Upon the slope of a lower hill near by, appears to have been formerly an Indian village. Many rude relics are uncovered on the spot, by the plough.

Smaller and very irregular heaps are frequent amongst the hills. They do not generally embrace more than a couple of cartloads of stone, and almost invariably cover a skeleton. Occasionally the amount of stones is much greater. Rude implements are sometimes found with the skeletons. A number of such graves have been observed near Sinking Springs, Highland county, Ohio; also in Adams county in the same State, and in Greenup county, Kentucky, at a point nearly opposite the town of Portsmouth on the Ohio.

Heaps of similar character are found in the Atlantic States, where they were p185 raised by the Indians over the bodies of those who met their death by accident, or in the manner of whose death there was something unusual. Dwight, in his Travels, mentions a heap of stones of this description which was raised over the body of a warrior killed by accident, on the old Indian trail between Hartford and Farmington, the seat of the Tunxis Indians, in Connecticut. Traces of a similar heap still exist on the old trail between Schenectady and Cherry Valley in New York, with which a like tradition is connected. They were not raised at once, but were the accumulations of a long period, it being the custom for each warrior as he passed the spot to add a stone to the pile. Hence the general occurrence of these rude monuments near some frequented trail or path.

Fig. 70.—Conical mound.

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