Fort Ancient Trip

- guest post by Jeff

"They engineered the position of the walls with reference to the most secure places with admirable skill. Think of thousands of men and women toiling on the brow of this high hill with wicker baskets, skins, etc., piling up such an enormous earthwork by mere strength of hand and back. They had no shovels, no picks, no barrows; in fact, no tools at all, such as we use." --Warren K. Moorehead 1890 It’s amazing how many people go on vacation on the days right before school and Labor Day.
Some people went to Florida, some Gatlinburg; but we went to Oregonia -because it is cheaper.
I guess Mickey and SpongeBob will have to wait another year; besides, there is a diamond in my own backyard.

Just a few miles down the road and at $6.00 per adult - $4.00 per child (Conor is 6) a record of a civilization that lived centuries before at a place called “Fort Ancient”.

http://www.ohiohistory.org/places/ftancien/fa-01.html
http://ohsweb.ohiohistory.org/places/sw04/index.shtml

Is it dumb to take pictures of signs? I don’t know, but it may help to tell a story. I read this sign thinking about what a sight this must have been like, with giant glaciers easing their way across the land and melting while that little squirrel thing is scurrying to get his acorn out in front. Did you catch the part about the “270 foot deep gorge”? Yeah, not even a football field – but tall as a 20 story building! Did you read the part about “steep sided gorge”? To me, the sign basically says, “Abandon hope; all ye who enter here!” - from Dante’s Divine Comedy. Except in this case, there are 20 stories of hell; because the further you go down, the more you have to climb back up.

20 stories
We would have went to the museum, but we had the dog with us.
Abandon hope all ye who enter here!
Thank God for stairs.
Don't pull!

The trails

A bridge!

Taking a break.