Description of Hopewell Group 83 



It must be remembered that the Hopewell group lies on very rich soil, 

 and has been cultivated continuously. From Atwater's description it 

 would appear that the three mounds forming No. 25 were built on a 

 terrace or platform. It is not necessary to quote Atwater's description, 

 but what Squier and Davis said might well apply to the work as we 

 found it. With the exception of a few omitted mounds, I herewith 

 append same, but present Mr. Cowen's map instead of theirs. It will 

 further be observed that we followed their numbering as far as possible, 

 but added numbers to mounds not recorded by them. In honor of the 

 owner, M. C. Hopewell, we changed the name from Clark's Works to 

 Hopewell Group. 



Clark's Work; North Fork of Paint Creek. 1 — The work here 

 presented is one of the largest and most interesting in the Scioto Valley. 

 It has many of the characteristics of a work of defence, and is accord- 

 ingly classified as such, although differing in position and some other 

 respects from the entrenched hills just described. The minor works 

 which it encloses, or which are in combination with it, are manifestly 

 of a different character, probably religious in their design, and would 

 seem to point to the conclusion that this was a fortified town rather 

 than a defensive work of last resort. 



It is situated on the North Fork of Paint Creek, on the estate of 

 W. C. Clark, and occupies the entire width of the second terrace, which 

 here presents a broad and level plain, of exceeding beauty and fertility. 

 Its general form is that of a parallelogram, 2,800 by 1,800 feet, with 

 one of its corners somewhat rounded. On the side next the creek, it is 

 bounded by a wall four feet high, running along the very edge of the 

 terrace bank, and conforming to its irregularities; these, however, are 

 slight. Its remaining sides are bounded by a wall and exterior ditch; 

 the wall is 6 feet high, by 35 feet at the base, and the ditch of corre- 

 sponding dimensions. The lines ascend the declivity of the tableland 

 back of the terrace, and extend along its brow, dipping into the ravines, 

 and rising over the ridges into which it has been cut by the action of 

 water. Wherever the ravines are of any considerable depth, the wall 

 has been washed away; but in all cases leaving evidences that it once 

 extended uninterruptedly through. The bank of the terrace is 30, that 

 of the tableland 50 feet in height. 



The area thus enclosed is one hundred and eleven acres. To the 

 right of the principal work, and connecting with it by a gateway at 



! This plan is from an original, minute survey by the authors. A plan and descrip- 

 tion of the same work were published by Atwater in the Archaeologia Americana. 

 It will be found to differ in some important respects. 



