Continuing... we went to Fort Hill, a Hopewell hilltop fortress with its ancient stone walls still visible. We hiked up a narrow trail to the very top. It was amazing. When up on top you could see straight down the sides 75 feet for more below. There was no way an enemy could get up to you without you attacking them from the top.
Here I am on the trail hiking up to the top. (Side note - this is where I got the Tick that crawled up my jeans and attached itself just above my right knee which I didn't know until that evening when I was getting in the shower. Curtis poured after shave on it and it backed right out!)
Up on top there were several natural springs for fresh water. This is the remain of one.
Wayne May had rods that could tell where wooden posts had been and we were able to figure out the size of each "watch tower". Totally amazing. These towers were along the ridge and fairly close to each other with pickets in between. In the Book of Mormon in
Alma 50: 3 & 4 it says:
And he caused that upon those works of timbers there should be a
frame of pickets built upon the timbers round about; and
they were strong and high.
And he caused towers to be erected that overlooked those works
of pickets, and he caused places of security to be built upon those
towers, that the stones and the arrows of the Lamanites could not hurt them.
We then traveled to Mound City in Chillicothe, Ohio. This restored Hopewell site features displays of artifacts of copper, silver, and stone that may have been made by Book of Mormon people.
Here is a copper head plate that was found.
Once again in the Book of Mormon in Alma 49:24
There were about fifty who were wounded, who had been exposed to the arrows of
the Lamanites through the pass, but they were shielded by their shields, and
their breastplates, and their head-plates, insomuch that their wounds were
upon their legs, many of which were very severe.
Sandi, Wayne May and Curtis sitting a top one of the huge mounds. This was a burial place. There were about 20 mounds in this one location.
The photo above is a drawing done by Squire and Davis of Seip Mound back in 1846. The only structure left today is the center oval which you can see in the photo below.
This is what Seip Mound looks like today. A very high mound.
Well when I got up to the top of this Seip Mound, I couldn't resist! I loved rolling down grassy hills as a kid and had not done it in decades! So I rolled down. You can see how high the mound is by how small the people look at the top. It took me a good 2 min to roll to the bottom. I did it twice!
We then drove on to Serpent Mound located in Adams County, Ohio. This structure was built about 1,000 BC by the Adena people (Jaradites). It lines up with the phases of the moon as well as the sun. It is similar to the constellation of Draco. Totally amazing. They have built a huge tower (a lot like a fire lookout tower) for one to climb so you can see the entire mound shape. That is where we took this photo from.
Below shows two of the signs that show the phases of the sun-rise and moon-rise. There were lots of them!
All of the above was just day two on this most amazing journey.
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