Monday, October 13, 2014

Caesar Creek and Fort Ancient

Fifteen years ago, there was a brood of cicadas that hatched where we lived (which means that they will come back in 2 years to NW Ohio). The bugs were everywhere. They would hit you as you walked or land on or around you (which was pretty startling). At work I remember the maintenance department had to clean the water filters every hour since the cicadas would get into the cooling tower. It was vacation time, so we searched for some place that wasn’t within the area of this hatching. Somehow we found the hidden gem of Caesar’s Creek.

The coolest part of Caesar Creek is that you are allowed to collect fossils with just a free permit required. Millions of years ago the area had been underwater. When they built a dam to form the lake, they found the spillway area was full of fossils from the sea. We saw families and even a bus of kids collecting fossils. You’re not allowed to use tools, so it’s just walking around and picking up rocks. The size of the rocks are limited to the palm of your hand, but you can collect a box of them if you want. This one was too big to take but cool to see!

  
A nearby park had Indian mounds called Fort Ancient.  It was never a fort but was probably more ceremonial. There are almost 3.5 miles of earthen embankments which was built ~2,000 years ago over 400 years by the Hopewell culture (which also built the Newark mounds).


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