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?

Here’s the image I had created that shows the line-of-sight.

Across the Valleys

On Friday I headed out to see what I could see.

I’ve mentioned before that, while hiking, I rarely use a compass. Usually I just read the lay of the land and combine that with time-of-day and sun angle to be able to tell where I am. This isn’t super-accurate; on the other hand, I’ve never really gotten lost.

However, I do know how to use a compass, and this was one of those occasions when it seemed to be a good idea. From that map, you can see that the line-of-sight from “Alligator” Mound to Salisbury Hill is 35° south of east. Also, I know that magnetic declination around here is 7° to the west. That meant I needed to set my bearing to 132° from magnetic north (90°+35°+7°=132°).

And then I headed to the Alligator Mound. Here’s a bit of a view of it.

The Head-end of the “Alligator” Mound

[Click for larger version.]

The mound itself is not super-prominent. In the picture above, the little rise on the right is the head; one of the legs extends right at us; the highest point is the shoulders. (It’s a lot easier to see in person, though, than in a photo.)

The end of the ridge that the Mound is on is a pretty nice development. There’s a golf course that winds through it, and the houses are all pretty expensive. This is one of the houses that faces right towards the Mound (the rise is the head again, this time from the other direction, and the bump in the foreground is the left leg).

Mound and House

Anyways, there are great views from atop the Mound. It’s just hard to discern much of anything (unless you are already intimately familiar with the view). However, it was not at all obvious to me where Salisbury Mound might be.

So, I set my compass and took a shot in the direction it indicated.

Looking the Right Direction

OK. It would be nice if it were better-focused and if there weren’t trees in the way, but I sure don’t know what I’m seeing there. Oh, well.

So I went to the other end of the line, Salisbury Hill (Forry Preserve).

The Licking River was quite a bit higher than last time I visited, last fall. Of course, that’s not surprising: spring rains and snow melt. I startled a pair of Mallards.

Crossing the Licking River (South Fork)

This is where bare feet came in quite handily (or footily). The river was about a foot deep in places, and would have gotten into any boots. But with bare feet all I had to do was roll up my pants legs and walk across. And my feet and legs dried out within a few minutes of emerging on the other side.

Here’s the view from atop Salisbury Hill in the right direction. There are fewer trees in the way (a lot were blown down in the derecho last year).

Looking Towards Alligator Mound

It’s not really clear if Alligator Mound is there. (But at least I focused it better.)

[Again, you can click on most images for larger versions.]

So, by the end of Friday while examining my pictures, that was about all I had.

But again, Jeff Gill to the rescue. He’d been up there recently and noted those radio antennas as being pretty close to being on line. (You should notice the three of them in the two pictures looking each direction.)

Here are those antennas from up close.

The Antennas

They’re on the north tip of 40^th street, and are the antennas for WHTH-AM (sister station of WNKO: KOOL 101.7).

Pulling up Google Maps, I drew the line-of-sight on their satellite view.

Positioning the Antennas

The red line is the line-of-sight, and I’ve marked the antennas with the blue arrows. From that, we can see that from Salisbury Hill the Alligator Mound should be slightly to the right of the towers.

So, look again at the view from Salisbury Hill towards the Alligator Mound. Do you see it?

Here’s the full-resolution cropping.

The Alligator Mound, Taken from Salisbury Hill

Yup, there it is. The money shot. Alligator Mound as seen from Salisbury Hill. You ought to even recognize that house on the left as the one I showed much earlier in this posting.

Now I needed a better picture towards Salisbury Hill. So I went back again on Saturday. Here’s what I get when I know what I’m looking for, and position myself to avoid the trees.

The View Towards Salisbury Hill

From this direction the top of Salisbury Hill ought to be slightly to the left of the towers. It’s not a grassy knoll, so it’s harder to spot than the Alligator Mound.

I recognize the lay of the land. Right behind the towers you can see the small valley that heads south to the west of Salisbury Hill. And if you look carefully, you can see the line of the top of the Hill. I’ve highlighted it here to help your eye.

The Line of the Hilltop

So, here it is.

Salisbury Hill, Taken from the Alligator Mound

There you have it. My two pictures of Salisbury Hill and the Alligator Mound, taken from each other. Yay!

When I wrote about the line-of-sight, I speculated that the Native Americans may have been well-aware of this. While the Alligator Mound is (probably) later Fort Ancient Culture, not Hopewell Culture, that location could still have had significance.

On the other hand, to really see them I needed a 300mm zoom lens, something I doubt the Hopewell had available to them. 🙂 It is almost exactly 5 miles between the sites. However, they also would have kept both high points free of trees (don’t forget that Salisbury Hill had an earthworks on it). These could have been important places from which to view the major earthworks below.

So maybe the sharp-eyed among them would be able to see across. And of course, fires at night from atop both locations would be fairly easy to see.

So, maybe.

Regardless, it was interesting and fun to check it out for myself, and to get my two opposite-looking photographs.