In Memory of Mato-Ska

We lost Mark Welsh Tuesday evening. I only knew him a short time, having met him when I participated in the A Walk with the Ancients back in 2009. But I had walked with him many times after that.

We will surely miss him.

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Octagon Open House

I’ve written before about the marvelous earthworks centered in Newark, Ohio. The Great Circle Mound is located just off Route 79 on the border with Heath, Ohio. And then there is the huge Octagon Earthworks a couple of miles to the northwest, currently occupied by a Country Club and golf course (but owned by the Ohio Historical Society).

Yesterday (and today, too!) was one of the four open houses that are conducted every year. These open houses are always extremely interesting and well worth going to.

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The Ends of the Line

When I wrote last week’s Earthworks Across the Licking Valley, I ended by noting that the “Alligator” Mound and Salisbury Hill are on a straight line-of-sight of each other along the Raccoon Valley before the Raccoon makes its bend due west.

So, can they see each other?

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Earthworks Across the Licking Valley

On Facebook a couple of days ago, Jeff Gill of the Newark Earthworks Center (among other things!) praised some of the LiDAR images I had created that were related to the earthworks around Newark.

But he asked for a “nudge”.

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Salisbury Hill — Follow the LiDAR (Part 2)

Yesterday, in Part 1 I wrote about using LiDAR to predetermine just where the earthworks atop Salisbury Hill would be.

In this entry I’ll write more about the beauty of the hike (or just wandering about), and a bit of how I updated my map of the park.

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Salisbury Hill — Follow the LiDAR (Part 1)

In last week’s entry on Salisbury Hill, I described how I go about mapping an area that is new to me.

Yesterday I returned to polish that up, along with doing some further looking for remnants of the Hopewell structure on top of the hill.

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Salisbury Hill

After I spent the weekend palling around with archeologists looking at the Newark Earthworks, during A Mound Walk, and after having Jeff Gill (the Docent of the Day) mention and point out Salisbury Hill (his name for it), I got to wondering if it was accessible to the general public.

So I went into my usual anal-compulsive research mode, and ended up exploring it on Tuesday.

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A Mound Walk

The Ancient Ohio Trail sponsored another walk through the City of Newark (Ohio) to look for traces of ancient Native American Mounds. I wrote about the August one in A Walk with the Currents.

There was another walk on Saturday. This walk was a bit shorter (3.3 miles, as opposed to 8.5 miles), and tended to cover the same material, but it was regardless a very nice pleasant fall trek.

You might want to refer back to my previous entry as we go along.

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A Walk with the Currents

Last week I wrote about the Walk with the Ancients I did a few years back. It was a great way to meet great people and to learn more about the mounds built centuries ago by the native peoples.

Last Saturday I had an opportunity to do a day-walk that I’m going to call “A Walk with the Currents”.

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A Walk with the Ancients

I just happened upon an article in Archeology magazine about the Newark Earthworks, and that article includes information and pictures of the “Walk with the Ancients” that was done in 2009.

I was part of that walk.

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Fun with Lidar

I’ve been playing the past few days with a Lidar data set, just for the fun of it. Lidar is laser ranging, and here in Ohio they’ve mapped the whole state with an elevation accuracy of around 1 foot.

So I’ve made a few images by writing some software to process the data.

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Finishing a Walk with the Ancients

Two years ago I participated in the Walk with the Ancients. This was a pilgrimage that walked around 70 miles from the Native American earthworks at Chillicothe to the Octagon earthworks in Newark. Here’s the story that the Columbus Dispatch did about it at the time.

Obviously, I walked the distance barefoot.

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The Octagon

Yesterday was an Open House at the Octagon Earthworks, part of the Newark Earthworks, in Newark, Ohio. These are the remnant of 2,000 year old mounds that were built by the Hopewell Culture. Unfortunately, many of these mounds have been plowed over or otherwise destroyed since their discovery by Europeans.

The Octagon Monument (actually, the Octagon Circle and the Octagon itself) currently have a golf course on them. However, the golf course is closed to golf 4 days a year, and yesterday was one of those days. Today is another one of them, so if you get a chance you should go. Personnel of the Ohio Historical Society (which owns the site) give guided tours throughout the day, and if you go you will learn a lot about the Octagon (for instance, it is a lunar observatory).

Here is a survey of the place that was done in 1847 by Squier and Davis,

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