560 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



height above the outer ditch and he records seven gateways. A short 

 distance from this earthwork was another large inclosure called the 

 " Bone fort " from the large number of human remains found in 

 pits within it. This site was earlier described in some detail by the 

 Rev. Kirkland, who visited it with one of the Seneca chiefs. 



The Le Roy site was 3 miles north of the village of that name and 

 was described in a general way by Lewis Morgan. It was not an 

 earthwork in the sense of being surrounded by a wall, but more of a 

 fortified stronghold having a defensive wall on one end. Squier 

 says, " the only trace of art is an embankment and ditch about 1500 

 feet in length, running east and west across the broadest part of the 

 peninsula, not far back from the edge of the ravine." The Rev. C. 

 H. Dewey of Rochester, who made some excavations at an early date, 

 said that the trench was ordinarily from 8 to 10 feet deep and about 

 the same width. It is now of less dimensions. An interesting form 

 of pipe found all through the Seneca region was found in this 

 earthwork and consists of a face having slitlike eyes and mouth, a 

 long rectangular nose so modeled that it appears to look out from 

 a hood with a triangular opening. Many of these are found on the 

 earlier Seneca sites along the Genesee. Other sites of importance 

 occur along the Tonawanda creek where there are numerous remains 

 of an early Iroquois people and vestiges of the mound builders. An 

 important mound was found on the old Parker farm, on lot 79, in 

 Alabama. Other village sites and burials are found along the creek 

 near the western boundary of the township. This county, like others 

 in the region, shows evidences of several occupations. 



Squier, in discussing the sites in this county, says that "in the town 

 of Alabama, in the extreme northwest of the county were once three 

 of these works of small size. This town adjoins Shelby, Orleans 

 county, on the north and touches Newstead, Erie county, on the 

 west. It will ultimately be seen that its ancient works constituted 

 part of a chain extending from the lake ridge on the north to Buffalo 

 creek on the southwest, a distance of 50 miles. Not less than twenty 

 ancient earthworks are known to occur in this range." 



In the early days, when the discovery of the Indian earthworks and 

 fortifications first was appreciated, it was a popular thing to believe 

 that they formed part of a systematic series of defensive strongholds 

 such as any modern people might erect at strategic points along 

 natural trails and passes. It was not commonly known that all these 

 fortifications were not occupied at one time, nor that as a matter of 

 truth no definite " chain erected for military purposes " ever existed 

 in this general area. 



