published
accounts being derived from those of Squier and Davis. They described
them under the name of Clark's works, from the owner of the farm within
which they lie; but the property has since passed into the possession
of Mr. M. C. Hopewell. From.this fact, yet more from his kind and
intelligent interest in the work of exploration, his name has been
given to the group.
The
Hopewell works are situated on the north fork of Paint Creek, about one
third of a mile from the stream. The intervening space is low
bottom-land, and the works stand upon a terrace about twenty feet high,
from which again there is a rather steep rise of thirty or forty feet
more, to the general level of the country. They consist of a nearly
quadrangular inclosure, about half a mile in length (strictly 2800
feet), and half as much in width, occupying the entire breadth of the
terrace. At its eastern end, this large inclosure opens into a second
and smaller one, an exact square of 850 feet. Within the main inclosure
are one or more village sites, a number of separate mounds, and
especially a group of several connected elevations, together known as
the Effigy mound, these being much the highest and most conspicuous,
and themselves surrounded by a semicircular inclosure. The whole
suggests a defensive work, or "walled town" ; but the wall, although
strongly and carefully built, partly of stones and partly of hard clay,
is so low—only from four to six feet in height—that it could not have
been a very formidable obstacle to a vigorous assault ; and, moreover,
the whole is overlooked and "commanded" from the bluff above it. The
mounds, as Squier and Davis examined them, were pronounced to be
mainly of the sacrificial or "altar" type. Since their very full and
accurate account was published, time and the hand of man have reduced
and almost obliterated portions of the wall and some of the smaller
mounds, while the creek has slightly shifted its course. When they
wrote their description, it was a little nearer than it is now; and
they then expressed the belief that it had formerly washed the base of
the terrace where the works are located.
Mr.
Moorehead's exploring party, aided by Dr. H. T. Cresson, began
operations at this notable group of mounds in August, 1891, and
continued them through about seven months, without interruption, much
of the time in severe winter weather. The work was carried on under
authority of the Anthropological Department of the Columbian Exposition
of 1893, at Chicago. All the most interesting and important of the very
extensive body of relics obtained was displayed there; and the whole
remains as a permanent exhibit in the Field (Columbian) Museum of
Natural History.
The Hopewell group comprises in all some twenty larger and
