IV 



CERTAIN TYPE SITES INTENSIVELY EXPLORED 

 BURNING SPRING PREHISTORIC IROQUOIAN SITE 



NEAR VERSAILLES, CATTARAUGUS COUNTY 



BY ARTHUR C. PARKER 



Burning Spring fort is a precolonial Iroquoian stronghold in the 

 township of Perrysburg, Cattaraugus county, New York. It is 

 situated on the point of a ridge jutting out from the superior terrace 

 on the southeast side of Cattaraugus creek, southeast of the mouth 

 of Big Indian creek. 



The earth wall that forms the breastworks of the fort is locally 

 supposed to have been beyond the powers of Indians to erect and is 

 therefore credited, for no apparent reason beyond this, to the 

 French, and the place has therefore been called the " Old French 

 Fort." The name of " Burning Spring fort " has been substituted 

 in this account as more descriptive of its location and as more con- 

 sistent with fact. 



The " burning spring " is found at the foot of the hill upon 

 which the fort is located and takes its name from the gas that 

 bubbles from the rocks beneath the water at the base of Burning 

 Spring falls, a stone's throw from the mouth of Big Indian creek. 

 The gas, up to some twenty years ago, issued in considerable volume, 

 and once lighted continued burning until extinguished by a heavy 

 freshet or by high winds. At present the gas is emitted in small 

 quantities from a crevice in the slate rock and supports but a feeble 

 flame. Still, the picturesque falls, the wide slate-bottomed creek, 

 the sulphur spring, the ancient fort above and the romantic sur- 

 roundings have for many years made the spot an ideal one for 

 picnics. 



The fort proper embraces an area of about one acre. The site 

 is one admirably adapted by its natural surroundings for a fortified 

 refuge, the swift treacherous Cattaraugus on the north preventing 

 easy access from that direction and the high, almost perpendicular, 

 slate cliffs of Big Indian creek on the west forming effective bar- 

 riers there. The eastern hillside is less steep but is protected by a 

 series of trenches, shielded by walls of earth, dug into the hill at 

 intervals from top to bottom. These outposts are found at all easilv 

 accessible parts of the bank. They were possibly intended as vantage 



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