Grave Creek Mound facts for kids
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Grave Creek Mound
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Grave Creek Mound in 2006
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| Location | Tomlinson and 9th Streets, Moundsville, West Virginia |
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| Built | 250–150 BC |
| NRHP reference No. | 66000751 |
Quick facts for kids Significant dates |
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| Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
| Designated NHL | July 19, 1964 |
The Grave Creek Mound is a huge ancient burial mound in West Virginia. It's one of the biggest cone-shaped mounds in the United States. Today, it stands about 62 feet (19 meters) tall and 240 feet (73 meters) wide.
People from the Adena culture built this mound around 250–150 BC. They moved over 60,000 tons of dirt to create it! The city of Moundsville grew up around it, close to the Ohio River.
The first time anyone officially dug into the mound was in 1838. Local people, Abelard Tomlinson and Thomas Biggs, did the digging. Grave Creek Mound is the largest Adena mound still standing. Because of its importance, it was named a National Historic Landmark in the mid-1900s.
In 1978, the state opened the Delf Norona Museum right at the mound. This museum shows many ancient tools and items. It helps us learn about the old Adena Culture. In 2010, the US Army Corps of Engineers gave almost 450,000 artifacts to the museum. These items were found during digs and show 10,000 years of people living in the area.
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What is Grave Creek Mound?
Grave Creek Mound is the biggest cone-shaped mound built by the ancient Mound Builders. It was built in different stages between about 250–150 B.C. This means people added to it over time, burying more people at different levels. When it was measured in 1838, it was about 69 feet (21 meters) tall and 292 feet (89 meters) wide at its base.
Long ago, a ditch or "moat" about 40 feet (12 meters) wide and 5 feet (1.5 meters) deep surrounded the mound. This moat had one path across it and might have been for protection. Inside the mound, archaeologists found remains of Adena people and their beautiful ornaments. They also found a small stone tablet, called the Grave Creek Stone. Most experts today believe this stone is not real.
History of the Mound
Ancient Builders: The Adena People
The Grave Creek Mound was built during a time called the Woodland period. This was around 1000 BC to about 1 AD. The people living in West Virginia then are known as Mound Builders. This specific burial mound was built slowly, step by step, over about a hundred years.
Early European American Sightings
A European American likely first saw the mound in 1770. Joseph Tomlinson and his brother built a cabin nearby. Joseph found the mound while hunting. Two years later, he built a family cabin about 300 feet (91 meters) from it.
In 1775, a young Englishman named Nicholas Cresswell visited the mound. He wrote about it in his journal during his canoe trip down the Ohio River. Later, in 1803, Meriwether Lewis also wrote about the mound. He saw it on his way to meet William Clark for their famous Lewis and Clark Expedition.
The 1800s: Digging into the Past
On March 19, 1838, Abelard Tomlinson and Thomas Biggs started digging into the mound. They made three tunnels. The first tunnel started about 4 feet (1.2 meters) up the north side. This made it easier to put the dug-out dirt into the surrounding ditch.
About 111 feet (34 meters) into the mound, they found a burial room. This room was dug into the ground before the mound was built. It was about 8 feet (2.4 meters) by 12 feet (3.7 meters) and held two burials. One burial had about 650 beads made of shell or ivory.
After finding the first room, they dug two more tunnels. One went straight down from the top, and another went in from the side. These tunnels met at a second burial room. This room, found on June 9, 1838, held one burial. Inside, they reported finding 1700 ivory beads, 500 seashells, and five copper bracelets.
Sadly, these tunnels damaged important clues that modern researchers could have used. After the digging, Tomlinson made the lower burial room bigger. He opened a museum inside the mound and charged people to visit. This museum closed in 1847. In 1843, Henry Schoolcraft, who studied Native Americans, mapped the area.
The 1900s: Saving the Mound
In 1908, local women from the Wheeling Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution saved the mound. They raised money to stop it from being torn down for new buildings. In 1909, the state of West Virginia bought the land to protect it. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1964.
Later studies showed something interesting about the mound's dirt. Even though it was built from local soil, some of the dirt inside was blue. This color change happened because of burned bodies buried long ago.
The Delf Norona Museum
The Delf Norona Museum shows many amazing items found at the Grave Creek Mound site. The West Virginia Division of Culture and History runs the museum. It opened in 1978. The exhibits teach visitors about the Adena people and how they might have built such a huge mound.
In recent years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers gave almost 450,000 artifacts to the museum. These items were found during a big dig in the 1990s. The dig happened when a new lock was being built on the Kanawha River.
These artifacts show 10,000 years of different cultures living in the Kanawha Valley. They include stone knives, a 3,000-year-old sandstone cooking bowl carved by hand (before people made pottery!), and stone jewelry from a Fort Ancient village.
In April 2010, the state displayed some of these artifacts at the capitol building in Charleston. The exhibits included old items from the John Reynolds plantation, like pendants made from Spanish coins by enslaved people in the 1790s. There were also items related to making salt in colonial times. But the main part of the exhibit was the prehistoric Native American artifacts. These show that Native Americans lived in the valley for thousands of years, much longer than European Americans. The Native American artifacts are now kept safely at the Delf Norona Museum.
See also
