Monday, March 10, 2008

"Ancient Stone Towers" Moundsville, WV

Geophile
Ran across this while looking at information on Midwestern burial mounds:
There is also an array of ancient stone towers on the bluffs overlooking Moundsville and the ancient earthworks. These are basically giant stone cairns now and reportedly were towers.

. . . Thanks to Gary's fine directions, I found one, known as Indian Knob. Unfortunately, a developer very recently used the stones to build a road into his new subdivision, and only a slight amount of one edge now remains. What apparently was a huge stone mound about 30 feet or more across is now a narrow crescent of rock only four feet high. When will the destruction STOP?? Note the tall weeds across the clearing. That is all that remains of this rock mound. The clearing is its footprint.
--from this page by the estimable J.Q. Jacobs who has added so much to our knowledge of the mound sites

2 comments :

pwax said...

What a tragedy. I wonder if any information remains below ground?

Anonymous said...

I understand the inclination to keep these things secret. I am working to have stone structures in my area recocnized and acknowleged by our state Historic Preservation Office. I think secrecy is their preservation strategy and I think it is ineffective. I'm watching these site be disturbed and destroyed even as I try to record them. I think it's time for education and tourist preservation.