Indian old field facts for kids
Indian Old Field (or just Old Field) was a special name used a long time ago in America. It was used by explorers, surveyors, and settlers. This name described land that Native Americans had already cleared. They used these areas for farming, like growing corn or vegetables. Sometimes they lived there too. You can find this term on old maps and in old land papers. Even today, some places in the Eastern United States still have "Old Field" in their names.
Why "Old Fields" Were Important
Early settlers, often called pioneers, really liked to find these "Old Fields." When they asked for land, they looked for places along main trails. They especially wanted land that Native Americans had already cleared. This was because the land was often ready for farming. So, old land maps often showed these special "Old Fields." Many place names from New England down to Florida still show where these "Old Fields" once were.
Examples of "Old Fields" in History
The first white settlers in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley saw many "Indian old fields." The Native Americans had left these areas.
On an early map of Virginia from 1751, a large area called "Shawno Fields" was marked. This was at the mouth of the South Branch of the Upper Potomac River. About nine miles upstream, settlers found even more clearings. A town called "Old Fields" still exists there today.
In the 1750s, an explorer named Christopher Gist traveled near the Ohio River. This area is now western West Virginia. He wrote in his journal about "Indian old fields." He said they had "large meadows, fine clover Bottoms & spacious Plains covered with wild Rye." This means the land was open and fertile.
A visitor to South Carolina in 1761 wrote about these fields:
There are dispersed up and down the country several large Indian old fields, which are lands that have been cleared by the Indians, and now remain just as they left them. There arise in many places fine savannahs, or wide extended plains, which do not produce any trees; these are a kind of natural lawns, and some of them as beautiful as those made by art.
This means the fields were open, like natural lawns, and very beautiful.
As late as 1912, someone studying family history in West Virginia explained "Old Fields":
"Old Fields" is a common expression for land that has been cultivated by the Indians and left fallow, which is generally overrun with what they call "broom grass".
This shows that the term was still understood even much later. It meant land that Native Americans had farmed and then left to rest, often growing a type of grass.
Places Named "Old Field" Today
Many places in the Eastern United States still have "Old Field" in their names. These names remind us of the Native American history of the land.
Alabama
- Chickasaw Old Fields, near Hobbs Island, Madison County
Tennessee
- Euchee Old Fields (now underwater due to a dam), Rhea County
- Watauga Old Fields, Elizabethton, Carter County
Georgia
North Carolina
- Old Fields, Wilson County
Kentucky
- Indian Old Fields, originally Eskippathiki, the last Indian town in Kentucky
Maryland
New York
West Virginia
- Old Field Branch, Greenbrier County
- Old Field Mountain, Greenbrier County
- Old Fields, Hardy County
- Old Field Fork, Lewis County
- Oldfield Branch, Mingo County
- Old Field Fork, Pocahontas County
- Old Field Ridge, Pocahontas County
Pennsylvania
- Clearfield County's name is also thought to be connected to Indian old fields.
