Tuesday, January 03, 2012

More Circular Walls

"On the west side of Kanawha river, opposite Point Pleasant, is a circular stone wall, about 200 feet in diameter, and about six feet in hight. This wall was built on the alluvial bottom and the stone must have been brought from the neighboring hills...An interesting description of these works was written by Capt. Page, of Ansted, some years ago, and they were afterwards visited and examined by Col. Norris, agent of the Smithsonian Institute. A few miles below this wall, on another high ridge just above Paint creek, is a similar work, but much smaller..."

History and mystery of the Kanawha Valley By John Peter Hale, West Virginia Historical and Antiquarian Society page 12)http://books.google.com/books?id=bRLVAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=mysterious+circular+stone+wall&source=bl&ots=OUfFxAfJN9&sig=EP0sJvcaVb-kNas0SGBFzvEt5zM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3Q0DT_vUK8OEtgfO2dXRBg&ved=0CH4Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q&f=false
Prehistoric Remains at Mount Carbon by Dr. Otis K. Rice"Among the most interesting of these prehistoric remains are those at Mount Carbon, about four miles east of Montgomery on Route 61. The Mount Carbon remains consist of a village site or sites between the highway and the Kanawha River and of stone walls and rock cairns on the mountain above the town. Early settlers of the upper Kanawha Valley, who like most other West Virginia pioneers lived partly by hunting, must very soon after their arrival in the valley have become aware of these walls. Yet, their concern with the grim problems of survival left them little time to explore the walls carefully, and their low regard for the Indians probably induced little speculation on their part as to the origin of the structures." http://www.wvculture.org/history/nativeamericans/mountcarbon01.html

2 comments :

pwax said...

Interesting examples. They are near water but do not open up to it.

Anonymous said...

Good reading. The Indian legends of an earlier white culture reminds of similar "legends" of the Maori in New
Zealand. dc.