Fairmount Mound

From Licking County Library's Wiki!
Revision as of 09:38, 8 December 2020 by LCL (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search
Sketch of Fairmount Mound and Church from 1875 Atlas of Licking County

Fairmount Mound is sited just north of the National Road (US-40) at Fairmount Church on a road of the same name. The large burial mound is in part attributed to the Hopewell cultural period and, like other Native-American mounds, it has become incorporated into the modern landscape as a sacred space. [1] Sitting very close to the mound is Fairmount Presbyterian Church, and the area around the mound became a burial site for American settlers in the area in the mid-nineteenth century. This reuse of the sacred space has helped preserve this fifteen-foot high and eighty-foot wide, prehistoric structure. [2] The church was organized in 1834 by Rev. Jonathan Cable and built a building erected in 1835. [3] The fortunate preservation of Fairmount mound is the exception for the once numerous embankments and mounds in the surrounding area, which have been largely destroyed through human activity. [4]



Fairmount Mound and cemetery as they appeared in a photograph from 1904

J.G.

References

  1. Pacheco, P. "The Legacy of the Licking River Basin Moundbuilders," Vanishing Heritage, (1992), 23-25.
  2. Woodward and Mcdonald, Indian Mounds of the Middle Ohio Valley, (2002), 185-186.
  3. Hill, N. History of Licking County, Ohio, (1881), 496
  4. Hill, N. History of Licking County, Ohio, (1881), 420.