Such are the conspicuous examples of ancient works that are now found to be on the alignment of modern routes of travel. In two singularly significant instances—in the Graded Way in Pike county, Ohio, and at Fort Ancient, Warren county, Ohio—there is no doubt that the modern road passes over the very track of the road used by the mound-builders. These two famous works, with the exception of the Serpent Mound probably the most famous in all the Central West, are near no stream of water which is not frozen in the winter and nearly dry in the summer. There can be no reasonable doubt that their builders used the routes on the watersheds.
As was said at the beginning, it does not seem wise to attempt to speculate on the probable routes by which these early tribes found their way to and fro between their works within the interior of the country. That they did so pass it seems difficult to doubt. That those early ways were along the watersheds, higher or lower, we may well believe, since for the races that have occupied the land since their time these watersheds have been the routes of travel—and will be until aërial navigation is assured.
That these earliest Americans had roads of one description or another, there is sufficient evidence. About their great works there were graded ways of ascent, up which the materials used in construction were hauled or borne. Now and then we find mention of some sort of roads which may seem to have been of a less local nature, but so far as highways of war and commerce are concerned there is no evidence which can be admitted into this treatise.
It will not be of disadvantage, however, to give a brief catalogue of such roads and ways as seem of most importance in the Catalogue of Prehistoric Works previously quoted:
Manitoba, Dominion of Canada: “Calf Mountain” (Tête de Bœuf), a mound 95 feet in diameter and 15 feet high, with a graded roadway 2 feet high, running southwest from it 154 feet; about 60 miles north of Pembina.[78]
Jefferson County, Georgia: Remains of large cemeteries and a broad trail leading to Old Town, 8 miles from Louisville, on the eastern side of the Ogeechee.[79]
Lowndes County, Georgia: Ruins of an “old town” within a few miles of Troupville, “with roads discernible, which are wide and straight.”[80]
Fayette County, Indiana: Camping grounds and traces of old trails in Secs. 34 and 36, T. 13 N., R. 13 E.[81]
Franklin County, Indiana: Traces of camp sites and old trails are observable on Sec. 31, T. 10 N., R. 1 W.; Sec. 33, T. 10 N., R. 2 W.; Sec. 10, T. 12 N., R. 13 E.[82]
Union County, Indiana: Traces of camp sites and old trails are observable on Secs. 8 and 11, T. 11 N., R. 2 W.; Secs. 34 and 36, T. 13 N., R. 13 E.; and Sec. 7, T. 14 N., R. 14 E.[83]