XIV. FLINT EIDGE AND WARSxiW QUARRIES, OHIO 

 Flint Ridge Quaiiries 



ONE OF the greatest of the known aboriginal (|uarries is 

 locat<>d on what is commonly called Flint Ridge, a narrow 

 irregular platean-capped lino of hills in Licking and Mus- 

 kingum Counties, Ohio. The ridge has been known as an aboriginal 

 flint (juarry for many years. Ilildreth, in the First Annual Rep(/rt 

 of the Ohio Geological Survey, under date of 183G, calls attention to 

 the existence and great extent of the quarries. He traced the so- 

 called calcareo-siliceous formations through a number of counties 

 and mentions the presence of ancient mines beginning in Jackson 

 County and extending north into Muskingum County. 



In recent years the Flint Ridge quarries have been visited by 

 numerous archeologists, but the first systematic study of the phe- 

 nomena of the " Ridge" was made by Gerard Fowke, then (188G-87) 

 assistant in the Bureau of Ethnology, and the results of his re- 

 searches appear in some detail in (he Smithsonian Report for 1S8I 

 and in his work entitled "The Archiieological History of Ohio," 

 1002. 



The extent of the ancient <iperations is almost beyond belief and 



can be realized only imperfectly by those who have 

 Sns°* °^ '^'"'^" n«t visited the locality. To say that hundreds of 



acres of the undulating surface of the plateau have 

 been dug over and countless trenches and pits opened to the depth 

 of from 5 to 25 feet, often so closely placed as to coalesce within the 

 various groups, does not leave an adequate impression upon the 

 mind. The accompanying map (fig. 56) indicates the general dis- 

 tribution of the flint deposits, and the sketch map (fig. 57) will serve 



to give a good idea of the superficial arrangement 

 The Tits To-day of the excavatious over a small part of the area. The 



heavy stratum or bed of flint, on account of its hard- 

 ness and continuity, has preserved the general levelof the summit, but 

 is or was originally exposed or but slightly obscured along the deeply 

 indented margins, especially on the west. The flint was easily reached 

 along the margins, but farther in, the earth capping in places is 10 or 

 20 feet in depth or even deeper, hence it presented serious difficulties 

 to the primitive w^orkmen. So pressing, however, was the demand 

 for implement material that this did not discourage the quan-ymen, 



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