THE ARCHEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF NEW YORK 30/ 



NOTES ON AN ANCIENT SEMICIRCULAR EARTHWORK 

 IN CHAUTAUQUA COUNTY 

 BY M. RAYMOND HARRINGTON 



While the work at Double Wall Fort was in progress during the 

 summer of 1904, occasional exploring trips were taken about the 

 country for the purpose of discovering new sites. On one of these 

 excursions I succeeded in locating the site of a semicircular earth- 

 work near Sheridan, Chautauqua county, and secured enough mate- 

 rial to warrant the addition of a few notes to the accounts already 

 published concerning it.' 



The site is situated on land formerly belonging to Mr J. G. 

 Gould, but now the property of a Mr Deland. Although now practi- 

 cally destroyed, the work could be traced with the help of Mr 

 Gould, who remembers it perfectly in its entirety, and its outlines 

 followed. It formed a nearly complete circle, with a low ridge, 

 probably natural, filling up a gap on its south side. The road from 

 Forestville to Fredonia crosses the work not far from this ridge. 

 The fort must have occupied in all 2 or 3 acres and was situated on 

 the crest of a very low sloping blufit* or gravel above, a wooded 

 swamp. The gate was on the north side, toward the blufif ; the ditch 

 was, as usual, outside the wall. The Bureau of Ethnology account 

 is inaccurate in stating that the work lies '' on a bluff above Walnut 

 creek," for there is no creek whatever in the swamp, merely a very 

 small brook, and Walnut creek is fully 2 miles away. Other errors 

 appear in Beauchamp's account : his authorities have so disagreed 

 that he has this one site listed under three different numbers (10, 11 

 and 12), with estimates of size running anywhere from, 13^ acres 

 according to Cheney, to 3 acres according to Reynolds. Neither of 

 the books mention the low mound near the center, almost obliterated, 

 which was pointed out to me but which I could not disturb on 

 account of the crops. 



It is difficult to understand the reasons which led the ancient 

 people to erect this fortified village so far inland, even from a creek. 

 The position is not commanding, nor has it any advantages as far 

 as I can see, except that there is a small spring and brook in the 

 nearby swamp. Perhaps they wished a hidden village, out of the 

 usual line of travel, and picked out this place for that purpose. The 

 exact spot may have been determined by conditions of forest growth 

 — natural clearings and the like, of which we today know nothing. 



1 Annual Report, U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, v. 12, p. 511; Beau-hamp, 

 Aboriginal Occupation of New York, p. 43. 

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