Stone ‘Fort’ (Ohio)

Prehistoric stone ‘fort’ will open to public

By John Switzer

For The Columbus Dispatch  •  Sunday December 13, 2015 8:19 AM

   “A little-known but extraordinary example of the work of prehistoric cultures in Ohio will soon open for public viewing for the first time…the huge works was constructed with Black Hand sandstone instead of earth as the Adena and Hopewell cultures used most of the time in constructing their ceremonial sites…”

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/12/13/prehistoric-stone-fort-will-open-to-public.html

   “Glenford Fort is a roughly triangular or heart-shaped stone wall enclosing a 26-acre-hilltop in Perry County, Ohio. The hilltop is a flat field ringed by rock outcrops that the ancient Native Americans built up to form the outer walls of the so-called “fort.” According to Charles Whittlesey, who surveyed the site in 1838, the walls were one to four feet high and about ten feet broad. In many places today, the walls are less than a foot tall.

In the center of the field within the walled enclosure is a solitary stone mound…”

Brad Lepper (2009)

http://apps.ohiohistory.org/ohioarchaeology/explore-glenford-fort-with-the-perry-county-historical-society/

http://apps.ohiohistory.org/ohioarchaeology/spring-walking-tour-of-glenford-fort-perry-county-ohio/

LiDar Views: http://www.earthworksconservancy.org/glenford-fort-conservation/

Glenford Stone “Fort” and Other Stone Constructions in Ohio and Beyond

by Norman Muller

“There are only two completely stone enclosures in Ohio: the Glenford Stone Fort, and the Flint Ridge Stone Fort.”

     “…I had not heard of the Glenford stone fort when I began to search for evidence of Indian stone construction outside the New England area. Archaeologists within New England (and even outside) were quite dismissive of any attempt to demonstrate the Indians constructed with stone before the European invasion of the seventeenth century. They were of the view that American Indians in the Northeast had no stone building technology before the Europeans invaded in the seventeenth century, and that any odd stonework had to be colonial. To me, the idea that the Indians did not construct with stone seemed odd, even impossible, since I knew from many articles and books I had read that they did so outside New England. And it seemed logical and important to counter this view held by many archaeologists by providing documented examples of American Indian stonework, supported by maps, photographs and documentary evidence, which could, over time, shift the paradigm to a point where differing ideas could be judged on their merits. This, then, was the reasoning behind researching the Glenford Stone Fort. Today the well preserved fort is on private land owned by Elizabeth Cooperrider, and it has been in the same family since 1831..."

http://www.rock-piles.com/GlenfordFort.pdf