<< Our Photo Pages >> Flint Ridge - Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry in United States in Great Lakes Midwest

Submitted by bat400 on Wednesday, 30 May 2007  Page Views: 11615

Multi-periodSite Name: Flint Ridge
Country: United States
NOTE: This site is 8.11 km away from the location you searched for.
Region: Great Lakes Midwest Type: Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
Nearest Town: Newark, Ohio  Nearest Village: Brownsville, Ohio
Latitude: 39.988000N  Longitude: 82.262W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
 4 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
 4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
 5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
 4

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rrmoser visited on 19th Jun 2014 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 4 9,000 years of use.

bat400 have visited here

Flint Ridge
Flint Ridge submitted by bat400 : One of many quarry pits left by ancient stone hunters. The pits were rapidly filling up with fallen leaves when I visited. Photo - bat400, 3 Nov 2007. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient Quarry in Licking County, Ohio.
Flint Ridge State Memorial Park. Flint Ridge is an exposed ridge of Vanport flint approximately 10 miles long and half a mile wide.The seam has been quarried from its first discovery by Paleo-Indian societies, up into the modern era. The Hopewell Culture peoples exploited the flint as a tradegood. Flint from this area has been found at archeological sites as widely separated as the Eastern seaboard, Louisiana, the Great Lakes, and Kansas.

Not only is the vein large and at the surface, but the flint is known for its color of whites, grays, creams, and pinks. Localized areas of highly colored stone in reds, greens, yellows and blues are also found.

Ancient peoples left the quarry pits themselves and piles of debris left from quarrying and "workshops" where the raw material was shaped into blanks or finished tools.This was not a settlement area as the only water is what gathers from rainfall into the quarry pits themselves.

The park protects a small portion of the Flint Ridge, but includes several ancient quarry pits. One surveyed site has been incorporated into the park's museum building, and is shown with quarrying tools (somewhat like the Jorvik site in York, but without the "time car").

The museum is open in the summer months and only Wednesday - Sunday. I believe the site may be walked at other times by respectful visitors, however, there is no parking available in the "off" season, since the verge of the road is studded with posts to prevent people parking at the side of the road.
The location is for the short trail immediately off the parking area which goes past several of the quarry pits, east of the small museum. Although this trail is marked as being wheelchair accessible, make sure your brakes are good and the chair has a narrow wheel base. (The asphalt pavement seems to have been laid directly on the ground and the path erratically curves up and over dips and hills with tight turns.)
This is a link.

Note: See the commentary on Flint Ridge stone and the people who used it....
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Flint Ridge
Flint Ridge submitted by bat400 : A closeup on an exposed boulder of Vanport Flint just outside the museum. Photo - bat400, 3 Nov 2007. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Flint Ridge
Flint Ridge submitted by durhamnature : Old photo from "Mound Builders..." via archive.org (Vote or comment on this photo)

Flint Ridge
Flint Ridge submitted by durhamnature (Vote or comment on this photo)

Flint Ridge
Flint Ridge submitted by durhamnature (Vote or comment on this photo)

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"Flint Ridge" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Re: Ohio's Flint Stones: a gem right out of history. by Aluta on Thursday, 31 May 2007
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I lived very near to the mounds at Newark Ohio for a short time, just after the Indian Mound Mall in Heath, just by Newark, was built and before it was landscaped. There may have been a work area or something there around the time that the mounds were being used, because you could walk around and see worked flint, mostly chipped, in the disturbed soil. I left most of it there because at the time Dr. Lepper was emphatic about not collecting artifacts for personal collections. I think I have 2 pieces in the attic somewhere, both of a lovely pink/coral-coloured flint.
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Ohio's Flint Stones: a gem right out of history. by bat400 on Wednesday, 30 May 2007
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Submitted by coldrum, a short essay on Flint Ridge stone and the people who used it. --

Ohio has two major sources for the flint that ancient Americans used to make their tools and weapons. One source, in Coshocton County, produces Upper Mercer or Coshocton flint. The other is the Flint Ridge quarries in Licking County.

Around this time each year, folks scour farm fields for tools and projectile points lost thousands of years ago. The best time to hunt is after the spring rains, before weeds and crops cover the fields. Artifact hunting is a fairly large hobby, and amateur archaeologists get to feel the wonder of finding something that was made by the first Americans.

I know because I have felt that wonder myself.

A good amateur archaeologist knows if a find was made of Upper Mercer or Flint Ridge flint. Some say Upper Mercer flint was easier to work with and favored by some of the early cultures, including the Paleo, possibly the earliest people to inhabit this land 15,000 years ago or more, and later, the Adena, who produced some of the mounds in what is now Ohio.

But the Hopewell culture, which followed the Adena and built lots of earthworks in this state, favored Flint Ridge flint.

The major, ancient Flint Ridge quarries are owned by the Ohio Historical Society and produce what people call gem-quality stone. It is so beautiful that it has been named Ohio's official gemstone. It comes in reds, blues, pinks, whites, blacks, greens and even a mottled combination of colors.

Upper Mercer flint comes in blacks, grays, tans and whites. Some pieces have veins of lighter colors streaking through them. Those are referred to as lightning bolts.

Items made of Upper Mercer flint are found in parts of the eastern United States, but those made of Flint Ridge flint are found in an even larger area.

Bradley Lepper, an archaeologist at the Ohio Historical Society, offers a suggestion on why that is so.

He said the Hopewell made their projectile points, scrapers, knives and bladelets out of Flint Ridge flint because they prized its color. "They didn't just want a functional tool, they wanted a beautiful functional tool," he said.

Lepper reminded surface hunters to get permission from landowners and to keep track of their finds and the fields they were found in.



"That way, they are collecting important scientific data and not just a box of rocks," he said.



For the original article, and Lepper's thought on the trade of Flint Ridge stone within the Hopewell area of influence, see the Columbus Dispatch.
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