OHIO'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO ARCHEOLOGY 



G. Frederick Wright 



The position of Ohio midway between the East and the 

 West gives it a conspicuous place in the development of human 

 history on the American Continent. At the time of the discovery 

 of America by Europeans, Ohio seems to have been neutral 

 territory, being largely a battleground between the Iroquois 

 Confederacy of Indians known as the six nations, whose center 

 was western New York, and the Eries and Andastes who with 

 their allies held the entire country to the south and west of 

 the central portion of the State. One of the most interesting 

 evidences of this is found in the neutral territory of two square 

 miles which existed at Fremont, Ohio. This has been described 

 by General Lewis Cass, from which it appears that at this point 

 there existed something like the cities of refuge in Palestine, a 

 place where members of the warring tribes on either side could 

 meet in safety to carry on barter and exchange ideas. It was 

 through this neutral territory that the main north and south 

 Indian trail, leading from the Great Lakes to the Ohio, passed. 

 Indian traders and warriors coming down from the upper lakes, 

 on reaching the shore of Lake Erie opposite the head of San- 

 dusky Bay, preferred to make a short portage at Port Clinton 

 rather than make a long detour around Marblehead Peninsula 

 to reach the head of the bay. So low is this pass at Port Clin- 

 ton that at high water it was frequently flooded to a small depth. 

 From the head of Sandusky Bay the trail followed up Sandusky 

 River, passing in Fremont through Spiegel Grove occupied by 

 the residence of the late President Hayes. This has now become 

 the property of the State Archaeological and Historical Society, 

 which has taken pains to preserve some of the original traces 

 of this great trail. Following up the Sandusky River the trail 



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