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INTRODUCTION -
Jackson is the seat of justice of an Ohio
county of the same name. It is situated on an eastern branch
of the Scioto river, in latitude 39 degrees, 15 minutes, north, and
longitude 82 degrees, 41 minutes and 48 seconds, west. It was
laid out in 1817, on the north half of Section 29, in the Scioto
Salt Reserve. This township had been set aside by Congress May
18, 1796, on account of the salt springs within its limits.
These springs or licks, are as old as the hills, for that erosion
which carved out the valleys between, exposed the strata from which
they flow. They were discovered by the wild animals of the
forest, and became one of their most favored resorts long before man
appeared upon the earth. No better evidence of this is needed
than the great quantity of fossil remains of extinct animals, which
have been discovered from time to time in the neighborhood of the
licks.
FOSSIL BONES - The story of the bones found imbedded in
the valley of Salt creek forms an important chapter in the history
of these licks. Fragments have been found in nearly all the
wells, cisterns, mineshafts and railroad excavations in the lowland
adjoining them. The greater number had decayed but many of the
larger bones were so well preserved that some of them were easily
identified as having belonged to the mammoth, the mastodon, the megatherium and other large animals of the prehistoric period.
According to Hildreth, the Society Saline may be ranked with the Big
Bone and Blue Licks in Kentucky for antiquity, from the fact of the
fossil bones of the mastodon and elephant being found at the depth
of thirty feet, imbedded in mud and clay. The remains of
several of these extinct animals were discovered in digging wells
for salt water, along the margin of the creek, consisting of tusks,
grinders, ribs and vertebrae, showing this creek to have been a
noted resort for these huge mammalia. The bones of the mammoth
predominated in the deposits discovered.
THE MAMMOTH. - The name was probably borrowed from the
Russian, although some claim that it is a corruption of the Arabic
word, behemoth. In modern usage it is applied to an ex-
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tinct form of elephant. It differed greatly from the elephant
of today, for it had a thick coat of hair, or wool, which enabled it
to withstand the great cold of the Ice Age. The Scioto Licks
were situated south of the Glacier, and a remnant of the mammoth may
have served in their neighborhood until after the close of the
Glacial Period. There is a local tradition
related by an old Indian chief to some of the early salt boilers,
which confirms this belief. It is the story of the death of
the "Big Buffalo." Seeing a pile of bones which had been
thrown out of a salt well, he explained that they belonged to the
Big Buffalo. The whites questioned him further, and he gladly
told the whole story, as follows:
"Long before the Shawanese came into this land to hunt
the buffalo, deer, elk and bear, there was a great water, which
filled all the valleys and covered all the low ground and even the
tops of the low hills. The water had come slowly from
everywhere and flowed in where it had never been before. It
drowned all the beaver houses, and was deep over the salt springs
and licks. The game was all driven out of the low ground and
roamed on the hills. The animals were fearful, for the 'Big
Buffalo' were on the hills and killed everything before them.
The Indians were forced to fly to the highest rocks, where they
looked down upon the great water rising all around and threatening
to drown the land. The animals did not fear them, but came
near them to escape from the Big Buffalo. At last only the
tops of the hills and ridges appeared above the waters, and it was
very cold. The Indians lived in the rocks and the Big Buffalo
could not reach them, but they could shoot their arrows and throw
their spears at them, and some of them they killed. At last
the water began to fall, but there was a lake left, which reached
north and south. But the water would not stay. It broke
out to the north, and also to the south, with great roaring, making
a way through the hills until the water was all gone except a small
lake where the salt springs are. The Big Buffalo went into
this lake to drink and became fast in the mud and died there, and
their bones, are deep in the ground. When the Big Buffalo were
all gone, the animals which had fled before them, came back, and the
Shawanese came here to hunt them, until the white man forced them to
make their home near the Big Lakes."
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A JACKSON COUNTY MAMMOTH - No perfect specimen of this
animal has been found in the immediate neighborhood of the licks,
but the last resting place of one was found in 1835, on a branch of
Salt creek, not many miles away. An examination of the remains
was made by Caleb Briggs in 1837. His report has
been preserved and is as follows: About two years ago, some
bones so large as to attract the attention of the inhabitants became
exposed in the bank of one of the branches of Salt creek, in the
northwest part of Jackson county. They were dug out by
individuals in the vicinity, from whom we obtained a tooth, a part
of the lower jaw, and some ribs. In the examinations at this
place during the past season it was concluded to make further
explorations, not only with the hope of finding other bones, but
with a view to ascertaining the situation and the nature of the
materials in which they were found. The explorations were
successful. There were found some mutilated and decayed
fragments of the skull, two grinders, two patellae, seven or eight
ribs, as many vertebrae and a tusk. Most of these are nearly
perfect, except the bones of the head. The tusk, though it
retained its natural shape as it lay in the ground, yet being very
frail, it was necessary to saw it into four pieces, in order to
remove it. The following are the dimensions of the tusk, taken
before it was removed from the place in which it was found:
Length on the outer curve, 10 feet 9 inches; on the
inner curve, 8 feet 9 inches; circumstances at base, 1 foot 9
inches; 2 feet from base, 1 foot 10 inches; 4 feet from base, 1 foot
11 inches; 7½ feet from base, 1
foot 7½ inches. This tusk
weighed, when taken from the earth, 180 pounds. The weight of the
largest tooth is 8 1-4 pounds.
These bones were dug from the bank of a creek near the
water, where they were found under a superincumbent mass of
stratified materials 15 to 18 feet in thickness. The section
carefully taken on
the ground will give a correct idea of the arrangement of the
materials, and the relative position in which these interesting
fossils were found.
No. 1 is a yellowish clay, or loam, which now forms the
surface of a swamp about one mile in length, and one-fourth to half
a mile
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in breadth; it is covered with large forest trees, many of which
from their size must have been growing some centuries—5 1-2 feet.
No. 2. This layer is a yellowish sandy clay—7 1-2 feet.
No. 3 is an irregular layer of ferruginous sand, tinged
with shades of red and yellow, and partially cemented with iron—4 to
8 inches.
No. 4 is a chocolate colored clay or mud, the inferior
part of which contains the remains of a few gramineous plants, very
much decayed—2 feet.
No. 5. Sandy clay, colored like No. 4, but a little
lighter — 1 1-2 feet.
No. 6 is the stratum containing the bones. It
consists, judging from external characters, of sand and clay,
containing a large proportion of animal and vegetable matter—1 to 1
1-2 feet.
These bones, from their position, had evidently been
subjected to some violence before they were covered with the
stratified deposits which have been described. The jaw and
grinders, with the other bones which we have thus slightly noticed,
evidently belong to an extinct species of the elephant, now found in
a fossil state. As the teeth differ from any which are figured
and described in the books to which I have access at the present
time, it is possible they may belong to an undescribed species.
THE
MASTODON - The last important find of fossil bones near the
licks was made July 8, 1888. According to the Journal,
"workmen, while employed in digging a well near the electric light
plant last Friday, discovered parts of the skeleton of an animal
that are supposed to be the remains of a mastodon. When about
17 feet below the bed of Salt creek they first found some ribs that
measured 48 inches from tip to tip, and one and three-fourths inches
in width; further down a large bone that weighed eleven pounds,
measured eleven and one-half inches in circumference in the center,
seventeen and one-third inches at one end, twenty inches in length,
and is supposed to be one of the bones of the foreleg. Dr.
B. F. Kitchen had some excavating done on Saturday and found a
large tooth about four inches in length." Further excavating
might have unearthed the whole skeleton, but the city had no
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time or money to spend on scientific investigations. The
mastodon was closely allied to the elephant, and was given its name
on account of the conical projections on its molar teeth.
The Megatherium - The
following statement is from the pen of Caleb Briggs,
who visited the licks in 1837: "Some of the salt wells in Jackson
county were dug in a deposit of clay, sand and gravel, occupying a
basin shaped cavity in the superior part of the conglomerate.
In nearly all these wells were found fossil bones consisting of jaw
teeth, tusks, vertebrae, ribs, etc., which from the descriptions
given by Mr. Crookham belong to extinct species of
animals. From his descriptions, remains of the Megatherium and
of the fossil elephant were among the number." Crookham
was a born naturalist, and his statements are entitled to credence,
but it is rather remarkable that the bones of this gigantic animal,
allied to the anteaters and the sloths of the tropics, should have
been found in such close proximity to the bones of the mammoth of
the arctic circle. This fact goes to prove the great antiquity
of the licks, for the megatherium must have visited them long before
the Ice Age began. But he had the same appetite for salt
shared by his fellow victims of later ages. Attracted by the
water oozing from the salt marsh above the licks, he ventured in too
far and was mired, and his bones marked the spot of his last
struggles. In time, they were covered by the bones of other
victims of the same appetite, and lay commingled until man came to
disturb them, and learn the fate of their owners.
WILD
GAME - All the animals of the forest resorted to these licks.
Many were attracted by the saline waters, while others came to prey
upon the former. Great herds of buffalo and elk, and thousands
of deer roamed in the valley and upon the hills at certain seasons,
and bears, panthers, wolves and wildcats followed in their train.
The smaller animals, lynxes, foxes, raccoons, wild turkeys and many
others could not remain away. The presence of so many animals
must have been a part of the attraction for the mammalia of the
prehistoric period. The region must have been a rich game
preserve for primeval man. It is known that it was one of the
favorite hunting grounds of the Ohio Indians. The
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early settlers were attracted to the neighborhood of the licks for
the same reason, indeed, according to Finley, the first
settlers could not have sustained themselves had it not been for the
wild game that was in the country. This was their principal
subsistence, and this they took at the peril of their lives, and
often main of them came near starving to death. Wild meat
without bread, or salt, was often their food for weeks together, if
they obtained bread, the meal was pounded in a mortar, or ground in
a handmill. Hominy was a good substitute for bread, or parched
corn pounded and sifted, then mixed with a little sugar and eaten
dry; or mixed with water as a good beverage. On this coarse
fare the people were remarkably healthy and cheerful. No
Complaints were heard of dyspepsia; I never heard of this
fashionable complaint till I was more than thirty years old; and if
the emigrants had come to these backwoods with dyspepsia, they would
not have been troubled long with it, for a few months' living on
buffalo, venison and good fat bear meat, with the oil of the raccoon
and opossum mixed up with plenty of hominy would soon have effected
a cure. A more hardy race of men and women grew up in this
wilderness than has ever been produced since. Almost every man
and boy were hunters, and some of the women of those times were
expert in the chase. The game which was considered the most
profitable and useful was the buffalo, the elk, the bear and the
deer. The smaller game consisted of raccoon, turkey, opossum
and ground hog. The panther was sometimes used for food, and
considered by some as good. The flesh of the wolf and wild cat
was only used when nothing else could be obtained.
The licks removed much of the danger of the
hunt, for the hunter found it necessary only to wait under cover
until the game he sought should appear. In a few minutes his
sure rifle brought down enough meat to last him a month. All
the old hunters have passed away to the happy hunting ground.
James H. Darling, new dead, knew some of them, and on his
last visit to Ohio he related the following meager details of the
days of wild game: "I have seen bears, wolves, panthers, wild
cats and deer in this county, I have seen as many as 20 deer
together. I once saw a wild cat in a tree, when I was very
young, and I thought it was a
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fox. I climbed the tree and it jumped at me and knocked me off
to the ground. The dogs got after it and Mr.
Winfough shot it. We had to pen up the sheep at night to
keep the wolves from killing them. I have killed wild cats and
have caught many wild turkeys. We caught them in rail pens.
We would build a square pen and would then dig a trench from the
outside to the middle of the pen, covering the part of the trench
inside of the pen with boards, all except an opening at the end.
We then spread corn in the woods and along the bottom of the trench.
The wild turkeys would discover the corn and would follow it until
they came out at the end of the trench inside of the pen. They
would then continue to look up and would never find the hole at
which they came in. We would sometimes catch 15 to 20 turkeys
at a time. The woods wore then full of wild hogs also, and we
killed them to eat. We always skinned them. Their meat
was not very good. There was a bear killed where Coalton now
is about 1823. It had broken into the hog pen of a man named
Alltire and had almost eaten up one hog when it was
discovered. Levi Davis, who lived near Berlin,
was a great deer hunter. He would hunt at night, and would
carry a pan of coals on his shoulder. The light would attract
the attention of the deer, and he would then be able to see its
reflection in their eyes and be able to take aim."
THE BUFFALO -
MORE COMING
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THE ELK -
SOME BEAR STORIES -
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DEER - Finley remarks that the deer is the
most beautiful wild animal that roams in American forests.
They change their
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PANTHERS -
WOLVES -
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BEAVER -
THE RACCOON -
THE LAST OTTER -
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PRIMEVAL MAN -
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THE MOUND BUILDERS -
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human warfare." The most important of their works in this
county is located near the licks and is known, loc.ally, as the Old
Fort.
THE OLD FORT -
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AN
ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND -
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Similar deposits have heretofore been found
in this county, notably one in the city cemetery, but none nearly so
large as this.
Within a few hundred yards of where this
cache was found are five mounds, two of which are of unusual form,
being surrounded by a ditch and low embankment. None of the
five have been explored, but would doubtless repay examination.
The collection referred to is now in the possession of the writer.
SALT -
ROCK SHELTERS -
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HUMAN SKELETONS -
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STORY OF THE ASHES -
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THE SALT PANS -
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THE SHAWANESE -
THE HISTORIC PERIOD -
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ANNEXED TO VIRGINIA -
CAPTAIN BATTS' EXPEDITION -
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LA SALLE -
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