There was an old grown up woods on a hillside turned into a beautiful showplace and a new sign like you see at scenic parks saying "Fort Salem Indian Mound." I grew up near that remote area but I hadn't heard it had been reclaimed. When I stopped, the sign and pictures and details on how the mounds were restored.
Local resident Bill Bare known for Bare Mechanical among a lot of other things, bought the property and sold it to an archaeological conservancy group. Between them, they raised enough funds and labor to restore the woods overlooking bottom land. They cleared the brush and little trees and limed, fertilized and seeded the woods and mounds. Pictures are never quite as good as being there and mine aren't either but you get the idea.
The old hard and silver maple grove is full of trees over 200 years old, or virgin timber when the white man settled the area in the late 1700's. Old timers like dad always prounced Certier as Searchy Road, we pronounced it Cer T er and of course the French pronounce it Cer T Yea. No matter how you say it, I can't find a link on the Internet, it is that new. I entered about every combination I could think of so far and no luck so I reveal it to you today!
I would love to have a family picnic or a quiet picnic with friends there. We only saw two picnic tables when I took LuAnn and Sable back Sunday evening. It is remote and suited to smaller groups. She was astounded and amazed to see it as I was to find it. She said this is the place my friend was talking about, she lives around here somewhere! It is not that far from our place, only 15 miles south or so and on my way to my mother's.
I have contacted the Archaeological Conservancy office in Columbus, Ohio. I think this may be the group who were involved with the project. As you can see by their new acquisitions, they are quite active although Fort Salem is not mentioned there. I also ran across this piece while searching for more information about that project.
Whiteoak High School is not far away I can just imagine a nice school here like I saw on Rural TV about Locust Trace High School near Lexington, Kentucky in Fayette County. My imagination runs pretty quickly when I find something like Fort Salem near my old home area. Dad would really like what Bill Bare and Archaeological Conservancy has down in Highland County.
That was my find this Memorial Day weekend. Farmers are busy trying to finish up soybean planting and then it will be the task of "laying the crops by" for the summer growing season. It's been really hot here and we nearly broke the record high of 95 degrees F. It got to 93 on our thermometers.
Happy Memorial Day to you all,
Ed Winkle
Interesting story about the Indian mound. I see Certier road is on google earth but haven't located the actual mound site yet.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see that it's being preserved.
ReplyDeleteCool place Bill Bear is a great fellow. Contributes allot of groups but does so anonymously.
ReplyDeleteI grew up a couple of miles from there on Hereford Road. My dad and I used to coon hunt in that little woods. It was very overgrown then. I remember walking through the woods with our kerosine lantern lighting the way. Suddenly we would be walking up and over the mounds. It was strange and sort of creepy at the time. A classmate of mine lived in the old brick house across the road where Bill lives now.
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