X ON THE MAP: The Ancient Cities of Indiana

When I was a child in Greenwood Indiana I dreamed of adventures, hidden treasures waiting to be found, strange artifacts made by

ancient

people and

ancient

maps that led to lost worlds in my mind, these adventures were somewhere else far away, like Egypt, Jordan, South America, Cambodia, anywhere. but Indiana, but little did I know that there were ancient worlds in my own backyard, hidden in the landscape, there were ancient burial mounds, stone forts and earthworks thousands of years before Indiana was a state, and not just that a map The ancients of these places spoke of treasures and Unknown People was not hidden in a cold, dark cave, but was buried in a university archive waiting to be found.

It would take me to incredible Antiquities from the past that still remain like the literal X on the map of the late 19th century. A geologist named Edward Travers Cox was working for the state of Indiana, compiled a county-by-county list of the state's natural resources and published these findings in geological surveys, but what was curious about these reports were the sections he titled Antiquities, not only It described ancient artifacts found but entire

cities

abandoned for thousands of years, eventually the list grew to more than 2,000 ancient funerary assemblies at Earthworks in Indiana, this included

cities

with walls up to 17 feet high, there were detailed descriptions of skeletons, strange jewelry copper, armor and other implements of war.

The objects were very different from those of known Native Americans. Interestingly, the Native Americans told the early European settlers that they found these places, they didn't build them, and not only that these unknown people had a confusing advanced knowledge of the universe. These earthworks predicted annual solstices and equinoxes were achieved without telescopes, star maps, computers, or even measuring devices. It was mysterious and disconcerting. It raised a lot of questions in my head, how they did it, who these people really were and where they came from, starting at the top of Indiana. It's Lake Michigan, while the shoreline speaks of sun and calm beneath the surface there are many mysterious clues to a very ancient past In 2007, scientists searching for shipwrecks discovered a curious rock 5 feet wide and 4 feet high that It had a petroglyph and an illustration of a mastadon like Mastadons became extinct about 10,000 years ago, this means that someone carved them in ancient times even before the pyramids were built in Egypt, but that was just the beginning.

A circular structure made of large stones was also found. It looked a lot like a stone hinge on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. A prehistoric timekeeping. The now underwater device, the rock and stone hinge-like structure, were created when water levels were much lower than they are today, this tells us several intriguing things, first, that these elements were created before the great melting of the Ice Age, making them some of man's oldest. Articles made on Earth number two, this was the home of one of the oldest civilizations we know. This is very unexplored territory that creates as many questions as it answers and, finally, the number three challenges the belief that the first people of Indiana were simple and primitive.

Simple and primitive people do not make structures aligned to the stars with mathematical precision. Many examples of their work still remain on the Indiana landscape and with the help of a nearly 150-year-old treasure map I embarked on a journey to find these lost objects. ancient towns There are still many ancient sites in Indiana, although they may not be advertised, they may be on private property, often hidden in the woods p Mid Mound in Vincin Indiana is the tallest mound in the state at 47 feet tall , is hidden in the forest next to the road in late spring and summer you can barely see it, in contrast, Sugarloaf Mound located on the other side of town is easily accessible.

It is the second largest mound in Indiana, standing 44 feet high. In the past, children used to sled down its slope in the winter for hundreds of years. of dead people some ancient mounds are hidden in plain sight as Mount Chrysler is located on the edge of the parking lot at Newcastle High School this is a ceremonial mount with unknown ancient rights we can only imagine what once happened here many times they are only mentioned In local history archives, if you're lucky, you'll only find them with a dedicated amount of research, but I was traveling with a treasure map.

It was not empty handed in the early days of our country, many white settlers recognized Mounds as ancient cemeteries, they put new graves around them respecting the grounds like here in Aurora Indiana and here in New Harmony with many small M's that have been worn away over time. It's pretty much the same story in Fredericksburg with it divided by a fence, but as they spread across the landscape they hindered both agriculture and road construction. Countless mounds were destroyed as unusual artifacts were found in the process. Amateur archeology became very popular. Many sites were looted. Sheely for grave goods and bragging rights and at that time there were no laws.

On the other hand, these artifacts told an unusual story, on the one hand there was jewelry made from seashells from the Gulf of Mexico hundreds of miles from the ocean and items made from copper, since Indiana only has rare glacial deposits of copper, it came from somewhere else. place in North America. occurs abundantly in Michigan, Canada, Montana, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, but not in Indiana, it was very strange and hinted that a people were used to traveling very long distances, most likely they used waterways to get to places and Countless mounds were placed along them from the shores of the lake.

From Michigan to the banks of the Ohio River and thousands of peaceful rivers and streams in between, geologist Edward Cox made a crucial observation: These ancient people not only buried their dead along waterways, but they also established cities and surveillance posts high above them, they wanted to see who. I was going back and forth from a distance, it made sense to have good visibility of potential enemies armed with this information in a map book. I hit the road with much anticipation whether or not I would find anything more than a few funeral mounts. It had not yet been seen, some were hidden near the roads where thousands pass unknowingly, but I found much more than I had ever dreamed: real ancient cities still hidden in the forest, including a prehistoric clock, one that still works after thousands of years old, in my hands was a map. showing three ancient settlements, Lawrenceburg and a very large fort at Hardenburg Indiana and across the Great Miami River in Ohio, a high bluff with another ancient fort.

I would start there and head west traveling through thousands of years of ancient history for a boy from Greenwood Indiana, this was the kind of adventure I always dreamed of, mixed with legends of ancient curses, advanced technologies and even giants. I couldn't wait to get there. The old fort is part of Shaunie Lookout Park, so named because the last residents were Shaie Indians, but they didn't build it, they found it and that's what they told white settlers. It is clearly identified in the Indiana Alarm Atlas and Gazetteer. This would be a gift. Others would need a little detective work at the beginning of the park.

There was even a funeral. A mound along the road long before reaching the fort provided a false sense of how easy this adventure would be. Wouldn't it be like that? Old maps did not have the benefit of satellites and after 200 years since the first description of these places, some waterways have even changed, but after all the uncertainty is part of the truth, one early Monday morning I found an empty parking lot, a totally deserted place, and a trailhead that beckoned me out for almost 2 hours, it would be just me in the spirit of the past if you have physical limitations.

This is not a path to consider. There are many ups and downs, including a major ladder. It starts out deceptively easy, but doesn't stay that way. Downloading a map is a great idea. This plateau is much larger than it seems. On a small map, in fact, it is much larger and there are many side paths that can make you lost for hours. When you reach the first fork, you will see the tip of the fort in front of you. It is an open square. When you walk here, we are walking over thousands of years of history.

There are earthworks that form a wall around the perimeter in Antiquity. They were much higher than before the erosion. I chose to walk around the fort and get a sense of how big it is. It's huge. There are burials. mounds around the perimeter as you delve deeper and deeper into the story as I walked down the path I could feel a strange sense of presence, a dull and unreal silence. I saw the sign indicating that I had reached the end of the perimeter, but I chose to go to the viewpoint up here there is an exceptional view partially eclipsed by the summer foliage through this portal I could see modern bridges and cars without realizing my presence and a incomparable view of the river to see who was coming and going for many miles I could only think Of the ancient eyes that stood here before me and their steps that I now traced completely surrounding the fort, I found stairs that went deep into a ravine and abruptly required a ascent towards the Fort.

Thousands of years had passed and all that was left. was what I could feel coming here, some may only find a trail, some funerary mounts and the wall, but others, like me, experienced something that is very difficult to put into words in Indiana. I found the Nan Mound site in Lawrenceburg, it was a decent settlement. from the Adena period This is where archaeologist Glenn Black conducted an immense amount of research dating back around 1,000 years and provided some very intriguing insights. Something very disturbing in the background was a huge burial mound 198 feet long, 90 feet wide and 15 feet high.

The Adena people buried their dead from east to west. Glenn Black dug into that pattern. If there was an ancient curse to reclaim, it was their little bugs that lived in the grass and bit everyone working on the site, but perseverance paid off and they found themselves underneath. the mount was a skull but interestingly, with no body it was speculated that these ancient people were buried with the heads of their enemies, they could even be head hunters, possibly even cannibals, having found a large stone under the skull, a burial chamber was imminent, the chamber was Once made of logs and the clay of the mound formed around it and solidified, so much time had passed that the logs had turned to dust.

Professor Black described the skeleton as a kind of warrior chief adorned with a necklace of shells. This was a very old find from a time before known Native Americans were categorized as Dena, it only solidified what we know of their strange culture and customs, as described in the Indianapolis News of October 1934, the skeleton was surrounded by numerous skulls without bodies, a very revealing, if not disturbing, discovery, history is history. it doesn't have to be easy to read or understand famous for his work on the angel mounds in Evansville Indiana used a magnetometer to search for unusual artifacts and cavities in the earth much was found here and taken to Indiana University in Bloomington I I couldn't I avoided looking at the ground and hoping that somehow something had been missed, but I found nothing, just a deserted meadow where secrets are suspected but never told and a burial mound once opened that created more questions than answers.

What intrigued me most was an ancient fort. Above Hardenburg, known as Obertin Fort, was surrounded by a large wall, the only way to enter was through a large tower at its entrance, at least eight neighborhood hills were also on the large plateau, this Absolut had me absolutely excited, but how to find it starting with On a satellite map, I overlaid the old map trying to line it up with the containers of the great Miami and Ohio rivers, but the path of those rivers changed or was slightly out of scale, they couldn't be aligned precisely . I noticed that the Old Fort in Hardenburg was almost on par with the fort in Ohio, so I made grid lines by simply removing the map above, it revealed the likely location of the fort.

I looked for any path leading inland and found it on Roote while he searched. Fort Obertin had to be the right place, so I headed towards Hardenburg and found the large ridge rising out of the landscape. I took the first path up the hillside as the adrenaline surged through my system, second by second, getting closer to theobjective and wondering. what you would find after several thousand years this could be nothing or it could be something entirely and then the private property sign. He had been at this rodeo before finding a castle in the woods making three documentaries and then receiving a letter from a lawyer.

Saying I trespassed on private property with the threat of legal action, they asked me to remove all the videos. I had no intention of taking that trip. Doing a double search online I found articles from the University summarizing the studies conducted at Old Fort. There were some big photos, but no. Mention of an ancient tower or walls of a U-shaped fort, high-resolution satellite images showed nothing and, unlike other ancient sites across the state, there was not a single image of the fort, although legally it could not go there, maybe there was nothing. I left to see.

I called the local archaeological organization and left my number disappointed. I still had other places to find and at the end of this trip I would be glad I went. My next map sent me to Winchester, Indiana, this huge ancient city occupied 31 acres where the White River and Sugar Creek meet built by the Hopewell people the walls measured 1080 feet by 1320 feet they were 7 to 10 feet high and around 25 feet wide was an important place in the center there was a mound 180 feet in diameter and 15 feet high and it was not placed there at random a study by Ball State University showed that the mound and the walls were aligned with celestial objects the builders of this complex were not simple people at all they were well organized and had a complex knowledge of astronomy in the late 19th century the plaza became the Randolph County Fairgrounds people used to sit on the ancient walls to observe the events at the fair, the geologist Edward Cox.He himself sat on the mound to watch a horse race.

It was called Fudge Mound, but where is this town today? The Randolph County Historical Society presented me with a wealth of information from excavations throughout the county, old copper artifacts, and old maps that I could compare with Satellite Images, but I wouldn't have to go far to find the remains of this ancient city. A building in front of the courthouse, like so many others, was built from the fort. Ancient, powerful clay walls were excavated and used to make bricks. It is no longer an old town along the White River in Sugar Creek with modern glasses. It's a total loss to history.

Thousands of years wasted that will never be recovered, but in the early days of Winchester only building materials were urgently needed. My next map. took me to Newcastle Indiana at one of the most incredible ancient sites in the state, the Newcastle complex, the city was surrounded by a huge land and a wall that included moats, it was very substantial, as described in 1937, it had nine enclosures in C shape that were supposed to be used for religious ceremonies, there were also four TOS men in various strange earthworks whose purpose is unknown. The grounds can still be seen by satellite, but it is no longer in its former glory.

At one point, much of the complex was razed to become a hospital. That hospital is also gone today is the Wilbur wri shooting range was another loss to ancient history the question in my head after the last two stops is there anything sacred about an ancient city built by an unknown people then occupied by Native Americans and then white settlers to a hospital and then to a shooting range we all recycle what we have in front of us history always repeats itself someday another people will come to this land and turn it into something else nothing stays the same an old map remains in the Anderson Indiana Mound State Park described in detail by Edward Cox, this was a very unusual place, there are 10 mounds here including a prehistoric clock that still keeps time, these people knew astronomy, it was first occupied by the ancient Adena, then by Hopewell and Mississippian and then by the Miami and Pami Native Americans before white settlers.

Occupied for over 2000 years, it is an excellent example of recycling. The enormous great mountain evokes images of mystery with ancient people performing rituals. This C-shaped mound is 300 feet wide in the ditch surrounding it. It is 10 feet deep to walk in. It's a 1 and a 4 mile trip is certainly impressive. Nearby is Mount Fiddleback, named for its unusual shape. The mountains in this plane predict solstices and equinoxes without fail. Nobody knows how the ancients did it. There are mounds throughout this 290-acre park. are fading into the past and others still provide wonders for generations. In the past there were three caves under these mounds.

There were even postcards showing them at a time when a little girl got lost inside the cave system, as the story goes, when they entered the cave. To rescue it they also found ancient artifacts from the mound builders. The three Cavs were sealed by shooting them with dynamite. No one knows what was found, if anything, there are many legends here, including tales of spirits walking the paths known as Pu Woodies. They resemble trolls with exaggerated facial features. Some long-time park employees swear they've seen them, truth or tale. This only increases the mystery of this ancient place.

It has been almost 150 years since Edward Cox published these intriguing maps and yet the mystery of these ancient cities and their builders still remains. There are still many ancient sites throughout the state of Indiana, such as angel mounds in Evansville. Places that you and I can visit. Walk the grounds and think of a mysterious earlier time. There are some that you have met. I have never heard of wapiki sioi in Fairbanks, Indiana, Brownie Mountain in Brown County, a place where the ancients created a long hilltop wall made of stone and what look like remains of a temple.

Rose Island in Charlestown, where early settlers found remains of a stone castle. and a long stone wall over the ridge, but many remain on private property, such as Troxel's Horseshoe in Perry County. It is a stone structure that was already ancient when the Native Americans found it. There are rumors of effigies that look like snakes hidden in the forest. Rock ledges with carved faces. and ancient artifacts that could change history and our perception of the past, but for many reasons those who know no longer tell it, the federal government has prosecuted many prostitutes for their fines, universities and museums have come to southern Indiana, they have excavated ancient sites and taken them away. artifacts that are never seen again if people find something, if they know something, they never talk about it Mysteries that remain Mysteries and questions that remain unanswered and yet in the back of our minds we know that there is an elusive and unanswered print on map