5/9/11

Our Forgotten Indian Mound and the Bones of Giants

Mark Turner Images

There use to be an Indian Mound Elementary school when I was a kid in the town of Marion Ohio.  The school no longer stands and has been replaced by a playground.  I did not attend the school and always wondered if there was an Indian Mound anywhere in the area.  So we drove out one day to search for any mounds.  Its a sprawling residential part of town, and unless you have any reason for being there, you've never seen it.  So we were amazed when we found an area that is never talked about in any local tourism guides, and no one really speaks about in town; a well kept Indian mound and an enclosure.  There are no signs to designate the area and in fact people were riding their ATV's up it a little while before we got there.  

The mound that stands within walking distance of the now demolished Indian Mound elementary school.

I suppose if I asked the historical society they might have some information.  Is this Adena?  Is this Hopewell?  I do not know.  Further inspection shows what looks like some kind of archeological dig that took place some time ago.  The back half of the mound is gone and the enclosure nearby is small compared to those in Newark.

On top of the mound.

The concrete patch.

  
The 'L' shaped enclosure has been preserved.
 A few streets over is a street called Mound Street.  Though I have driven it a few times, I have never seen any mounds there.  If there were any, and I'm sure there must have been, they are long gone.  I use to wonder if the Lincoln Park hill was a mound, but have been told, and heard it growing-up, that it is left over dirt from construction in the area.  Always a danger for amateur mound hunters!

And speaking of Marion, when it comes to legends of the past, none is more strange than the little known following story that I only learned of in recent years.  

Evidence for the occupation of this region before the appearance of the red man and the white race is to be found in almost every part of the county, as well as through the northwest generally. In removing the gravel bluffs, which are numerous and deep, for the construction and repair of roads, and in excavating cellars, hundreds of human skeletons, some of them of giant form, have been found. A citizen of Marion County estimates that there were about as many human skeletons in the knolls of Marion County as there are white inhabitants at present!

The History of Marion County, Ohio 1883
I first read this from websites quoting Mary Sutherland's Giants of Ohio and the Mound Builders.  I highly recommend it as a string point for giants in the past.  I have no idea, and doubt that anyone will ever know where those giant human bones were found.  Maybe the above mound is very old?  These legends of giants in Indian lore date back to very distant times.  Giants aside, the fact that Mounds and the ancient Indian past of North America is never really taught to us in school, except that 'Columbus came here one day and that's that', is pretty sad, and does everyone living in a former sacred site a disservice.  "A citizen of Marion County estimates that there were about as many human skeletons in the knolls of Marion County as there are white inhabitants at present!"  We are all living in a haunted land.            

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33 comments:

  1. All of my banner art has been made by me using the very free and very awesome photos from
    Morgue File.com

    I should say that all of the photos are from there except for my True Ghost Stories, that is my photo of Kingston Mansion in Mansfield.
    Thanks for visiting

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    1. I believe the mansion you mentioned is actually Kingwood Center, built by Charles Kelley King in 1926 as cited from this web page: http://www.kingwoodcenter.org/cms/index.php/about

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    2. Between the old high school and Indian mound school are some woods that have over a hundred mounds. I used to ride my bike thru there and also filmed a short film there in 1979.

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  2. Wow I thought I was the only one from Marion who knew there was a real indian mound there. Sad that NOTHING is said anywhere in our history or schools. This could be something we could be proud of. One of the reasons I left that town. No one cares.

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    1. I should say that I don't know for sure what that mound is. It could be industrial earth moving from recent times. But the former School name of Indian Mound and a nearby street called Mound Street really makes me wonder. Thanks for your comment. :-)

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    2. I grew up in Marion and remember going to Indian Mound. Back then it looked like a small rise in the ground and was in a place with some small trees and a few larger ones. While I lived there, no one seemed to have any proof that there were any bones or Indian artifacts in that area. I hope someday we'll know for sure, but I doubt it. Marion was a great place to grow up though. There were several places to explore and pretend. And of course we had our share of famous (and infamous) people living there. Marion's most famous person, was probably President Harding and the Harding Memorial is a beautiful monument to his memory...and becareful about what you say about President Harding in Marion or you may be run out of town....jst kidding, but he town does care about how he's remembered.

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    3. I also attended Indian Mounds Elementary the first year it was open. We used to ride our bikes on the mounds near the school. Then they fenced the mounds in to keep us out. But we found ways to get in. Finally they blocked everything so we couldn't get in. We found arrow heads in the mounds. Someone believed it was an actual Indian mound or they wouldn't have closed it in.

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    4. I grew up on Belmont St in Marion. At the end of the street was a field and Indian Mound. We also rode bikes there & many years later visiting Marion there was a sign "Historical Site". Later still I visited & the sign was still there but old & tatered. As a child I never thought anything about the name of the mound. Then it was just a circle. I guess the top of the mound was dug out??? So sad.

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    1. The park in the pictures above is Glenwood park and the school was Glenwood elementary. Indian mound trail is between the old high school and Indian mound elementary (now Benjamin Harris elementary)

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  4. I found out about this mound after moving to Marion. We have recently started Geocaching (www.geocaching.com) and found that this would be a great place to place our cache. We DID get permission to place our cache here, as it is open to the public all year round. Thanks for the info! I will be using some it to educate future cache hunters!!! Together, we will make this place known!!

    Wiccanwanderers

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  5. I found out about this mound after moving to Marion. We have recently started Geocaching (www.geocaching.com) and found that this would be a great place to place our cache. We DID get permission to place our cache here, as it is open to the public all year round. Thanks for the info! I will be using some it to educate future cache hunters!!! Together, we will make this place known!!

    Wiccanwanderers

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  6. I grew up in Marion,Ohio and played in the Indian mounds.We found lot of flint arrow heads there.I am 74 years old and I do not remember any talk about them.We would ride our bikes up and down the hills.They built Harding HI School to the west of it in the 50's.

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  7. I also grew up in Marion. I left at 18 and have only been back a few times to visit. i rode my bike thru the mound as a kid and attended Harding High School. There was a Dig of sort in the 1880's of the mound and many artifacts and skeletons were remove. It is said that all faced east and were buried standing.

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  8. I went to Indian Mound Elementary from kindergarten through 5th grade. The school still stands but has been renamed Harrison Elementary/

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  9. Indian mound school is by Indian mound park the school is now Benjamin Harris elementary. They are both behind the old Harding which is now grant.

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  10. The pictures location is on the west side, between westlawn. The school you are thinking of was Glenwood elementary

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  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  12. Check out the 1917 Archaeological Atlas of Ohio (Google it -- the best version is on archive because it includes the map legends). It includes a map of Marion County showing archaeological sites, including some of those ancient burial sites.

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  13. Born and raised in Marion, I too was a graduate of Indian Mound Elementary, the first class to matriculate in the late 60's after it was built. It was/ is adjacent to "Indian Mounds" that was surrounded bay a chain linked fenced by then. The 6 or 8 acres of wooded over mounds had perfect trails for riding bikes, the most challenging of all was the "Sugar Bowl" as we called it then, that claimed many a rim and skinned countless knees and elbows.
    Yes, the school was renamed Benjamin Harris, and the sign at the main trail head on the North side leading into the mounds was "Indian Mound Trail", long since removed. The mound is bordered on the north by soccer/ football practice fields, tennis courts.; on the south by the playground for the elementary school, to the west by the original Harding High school's Prexis' football stadium and track and to the east by Brightwood Drive. The photos here do not look anything like it, then or now... I road this area in Nov. 2018.

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    1. My Grandparents house was built on one of these mounds on Eisenhower Ave. Right near the old Harding High school. My grandmother told that they found an Indian buried at the foot of their stairs. What they did with it, I have no idea, but wonder how they were able to build a house in that location is beyond me. You can easily see which house it is. The driveway is very hilly.

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  14. I live right down the road and have heard it use to be an Indian burial ground gonna go start digging lol no be it its curious

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  15. The original Indian Mound school is still standing the names has changed but the building still stands

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  16. I graduated from Harding High in 1960. The Mound behind the school, adjacent to the football field, was on our way to school. I was curious about it, but no one seemed to know or really care. It just was. Great place for all sorts of shenanigans.

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  17. I grew up on Brighwood Dr. in the 50’s. Played on the Indian mound all the time. (40.5803802, -83.1175549) Exact location of the entrance to the mound from a path before Brightwood street was extended to the South.

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