MYER] GORDON TOWN SITE 497 
PRESENT APPEARANCE OF GORDON TOWN SITE 
The photograph reproduced in Plate 97 shows the present appear- 
ance of the western half of the Gordon town site. It is a gently 
rolling, almost level woodland, with a small remainder of the noble 
primeval forest which once covered the Central Tennessee Basin. 
The photograph does not show the finest trees on this site, which are 
principally beech, elm, and oak. Many of each of these species 
measure 13 feet in circumference 3 feet above the ground. The 
stump of one of these 13-foot elms showed more than 300 growth 
rings. The central portion of the stump being slightly decayed, it 
was impossible to determine the exact number. The accompanying 
illustrations show a few of these fine trees. The linden shown in 
Plate 98 measures 221% feet in circumference 5 feet above the ground. 
By its side is shown Dr. Harry S. Vaughan, of Nashville, who indirectly 
caused the discovery of the town by taking the author to see the 
small mound on this site. 
A map of the Gordon town site is shown in Plate 95. Here are 
shown the open flat space which was the town square, the two low 
mounds at the northwestern corner, the portion of the town now 
nearly obliterated in the cultivated fields and garden, and the 87 
saucer-shaped earth circles which can still be made out in the undis- 
turbed grassy woodland. In the spaces left blank on the map, in the 
woodland, there are many faint indications of earth circles. Very 
likely a thorough excavation of the town site would show that all the 
space within the walls was filled with earth circles, with the exception 
of the town square and the spaces marked ‘‘ Cemetery” and “Scat- 
tered graves.” This would give about 125 buildings within the walls, 
as excavations showed each earth circle to be the remains of an 
ancient building. 
All of the land around the town is now in cultivation with the 
exception of an undisturbed woodland on the gentle slope 300 feet 
to the east of the walls of the settlement. In this woodland, which 
extended 600 feet along the side of the town, were found only three 
small house circles. These were 9, 12, and 14 feet, respectively, in 
diameter and were from 50 to 100 feet distant from each other. This 
and other evidence would indicate that a very small number of the 
Indians lived in wigwams outside the walls of the town, and these 
could easily reach the protection of the fortifications. 
It was not possible to ascertain whether any trace of a cleared spot, 
indicating cultivated fields belonging to this town, was in evidence 
when the region was first visited by the English about 1770. It is 
probable that the old Indian cultivated fields had many centuries 
before grown up into an open forest. 
