Name: Adena Mound
Near: Cedarville, Greene County, Ohio
Difficulty: 2 (1 mile hike on trails)
Placed 4 December 2001 by Flyfisher

The Adena civilization in the Ohio Valley existed sometime between
4000 BC and 500 AD. Nothing is known from the historical record of
this civilization. No written documents await deciphering. "Burial
mounds" and "fortifications" abound with several theories as to their
use and purpose. The woodland Indian nations that occupied this area
when east coast european hunters arrived knew nothing of the builders
of the ancient mounds and fort like enclosures scattered around the
valley.

A typical day in the life of a young man may have gone something like
this: Rising in the morning with a crew of fellow hunters, armed with
pointed spears, the party walks several miles through the beech and
oak forests. At a spring with yellow sulpher crystallized at its
edges, the hunters surround a full-grown bull moose. A 14 year old
son of the tribal head man lunges at the moose with his 8 foot long
pole, pushing the stick into the root of the moose's neck, but the
moose turns and charges the youth. Trampled, the young man does not
rise from the muddy ground.

Our 18-year-old hunter and the rest of the party surround the
weakening beast and wear it down, finally getting it to the ground an
hour later. The hunters break out their hand shaped flint knives and
begin the gruesome task of skinning the animal and reducing the
carcass into pieces that can be carried by a man on the 6-mile
journey home.

The 13 year old, whose neck was snapped by the moose lapses into a
coma and then stops breathing. Such hunting accidents make the hunt
both dangerous and heroic. This son's daring will be spoken of for
many years to come.

Back at the village, the head man has already heard the sad news.
All members of the tribe have stopped their daily work and begun to
carry woven purses of clay and water from the creek to the nearby
burial mound. Soon the surface of the ancient mound is slick from
the application of the fresh coat of dirt and water. Only a single
strip remains from the bottom to the top where the workers have
carried their loads to the top before releasing them down the sides
of mound.

The burial crypt has been prepared, and the next day, the honored son
is laid to rest, with suitable remarks, immersed in thick soupy clay,
in the same fetal position he was born. More dirt and water is added
to the mound as the village folk go about their never ending need to
work, play, eat, and grow. Tomorrow a new hunting party will go a
field to look for game.

Note: (Nothing is actually known of the mound you will visit. Some
mounds have been found to be places of funerary activities, others
have not contained graves. This mound has never been excavated.) As
you approach this possible gravesite, do so with the same reverence
you would any other hallowed ground.
To wit, south of Cedarville on US 42 is a park called Indian Mound
Preserve. It has 3 parking lots along Route 42. Park in the middle
lot. It may help to find this lot if you use a GPS receiver or print
a topographic map centered on N 39.7377 W 83.8287.

Leave the parking lot, walking on a road at 335 degrees. From the
far side of the bridge, 53 paces later (1 pace = 2 steps, about 5
feet) bear right (40 degrees) onto a trail. Follow this trail, and
at the fork with the wooden bridge, bear left up the rocky path to
the mound.

Climb the mound via the steps. You did count the steps didn't you?
Good! Take a bearing of exactly the number of steps up the mound.
Now turn right around and look at what pilots call the back course.
There is a large standing tree in that direction and another large
tree lying on the ground at it's foot. This is visible in the
winter summer may take a bit more imagination.

Descend the steps and walk around the mound toward that tree. When
closest to the tree, take 10 paces toward the tree from the edge of
the mown grass. Arriving at the nearest part of the fallen tree, sit
down. You have arrived. On the far side of the fallen tree, under 3
rocks, is the Mound letterbox.

After stamping up, I would ask you to read this whole description
again from your resting point. Make up another story about how this
mound came to be when what we call the Adena civilization was at its
height. Your idea is likely to bear as much weight as mine, and
likely as much weight at that of professional archeologists. The
simple truth is, we don't have the foggiest idea what happened here.

Want to know the real truth? As the "Dread Pirate Roberts"
said: "Get used to disappointment."