September 18, 2013
September 18, 2013
We are just west of Cincinnati. Our first stop is William Howard Taft National Historic Site. Our route takes us across the heart of the city. I am shocked how hilly the city is. Taft’s boyhood home is on the top of one hill. For most people Taft is only known as the fattest president we have had. That is sad, for he had a long and illustrious political career. Theodore Roosevelt chose him to be his successor. He probably would have had a second presidential term except for a major falling out with TR who then ran against him. They split the Republican vote letting Wilson steal the Presidency. Taft spent the last years of his life as Supreme Court Chief Justice.
From Cincinnati we drove east to Chillicothe to visit Hopewell Culture National Historic Park. Indian mounds blanket the eastern half of the US. The mounds here are from the Hopewell culture 2000 years ago. Near my home town is Cahokia Mounds from the much later Mississipian culture.
We watch the film and tour the small museum where we learn the mounds were mostly ceremonial burial sites. In most they found cremated remains. Buried with them were items that indicate this culture traded for goods throughout the US. Even to far off Yellowstone for obsidian!
All the mounds lie within large earthen walled compounds of unknown purpose. In addition most mound sites of this culture contain a large square and two circles of different sizes. Aimee and I take a walk around the mounds in the earthen square in this site. As we do, the only thing I can think is that if I spent my time hunting and gathering to feed my family, the last thing I would do in my spare time was haul thousands of baskets of dirt to build these structures. Something doesn’t add up.
From Chillicothe we continued east. It started raining so we stopped early and spent the night at a public park just across the Ohio River in West Virginia. Interestingly the campground is also the location of Fort Randolph, a Revolutionary War-era fort and battle site.
From Cincinnati we drove east to Chillicothe to visit Hopewell Culture National Historic Park. Indian mounds blanket the eastern half of the US. The mounds here are from the Hopewell culture 2000 years ago. Near my home town is Cahokia Mounds from the much later Mississipian culture.
We watch the film and tour the small museum where we learn the mounds were mostly ceremonial burial sites. In most they found cremated remains. Buried with them were items that indicate this culture traded for goods throughout the US. Even to far off Yellowstone for obsidian! All the mounds lie within large earthen walled compounds of unknown purpose. In addition most mound sites of this culture contain a large square and two circles of different sizes. Aimee and I take a walk around the mounds in the earthen square in this site. As we do, the only thing I can think is that if I spent my time hunting and gathering to feed my family, the last thing I would do in my spare time was haul thousands of baskets of dirt to build these structures. Something doesn’t add up.
From Chillicothe we continued east. It started raining so we stopped early and spent the night at a public park just across the Ohio River in West Virginia. Interestingly the campground is also the location of Fort Randolph, a Revolutionary War-era fort and battle site.
posted by Mike and Aimee at 3:04 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home