Did I Discover Lost City?

Mysterious Spruce Hill, Ross County, Ohio

Faint Traces Of A Prehistoric Lost City?

Early settlers in Ohio's Paint Creek valley found a table top hill surrounded by earthwork walls and evidence of high temperature fires and furnaces built into the walls. Evergreen trees dot the hillside facing the creek valley, so it was given the name "Spruce Hill." In 1963 I accompanied amatuer archaeologist Arlington H. Mallery as he revisited the site where he had claimed to have found a prehistoric iron furnace 1949. Mallery also explored other sites in Ross County, Ohio in 1949-50 and claimed to have found prehistoric iron furnaces in an "Indian" mound in the valley of Deer Creek.

During the spring and summer of 1963, while beginning my career as a newspaper reporter, I accompanied Mallery as he returned to the field, to obtain material from one of his iron furnace sites for carbon 14 dating. I dug into the site and obtained the material he sought. However, Mallery wasn't able to get the carbon sample dated because his old age caught up with him -- he was 86 years old and was experincing difficulties with his memory.

I began my own work in the field in 1989 and have been at it ever since. Photos and more information about Spruce Hill can be found by visiting my web site "America's Mysterious Furnaces." Spruce Hill is a prehistoric hill fort and according to historic evidence, traces of a "lost city" were found in a valley southwest of the hill fort by the first settlers of the area.

However, a closeup image I downloaded from Goggle Earth, when printed out in high contrast, shows a remarkable grid of north-south and east-west lines which strongly suggest there was once a town or village there. This would then be prehistoric, becuase evidence of a such "lost city" up on the hilltop did not show up prior to the availability of online satellite imagery.

Clearly, the faint grid lines visible on the black and white image above suggest the fromer existence of a prehistoric town on Spruce Hill! Perhaps there were two towns, one in the valley and another up on the hill.

Did they exist at the same time, or did one come after the other? Was the hilltop site used as a place of refuge for the village in the valley? Gardens and crops could be tended from the valley village site, while to plateau village site could have been used when the villagers were threatened by enemies.

Ever since my first visit to the hill in 1963, I've enjoyed this archaeological treasure and have felt fortunate it was recently rescued from the awful fate of being the site of a hilltop suburb! It is now safely a part of the U.S. Park Service's Hopewell Culture National Park. For more about Spruce Hill visit "America's Mysterious Furnaces."

Rechecking the view of Spruce Hill on Goggle Earth, I found that the north-south grid lines are very true to the compass, suggesting astromical sophistication of those who created the grid. Also, I viewed other table top hills in the area and found none with similar grid lines.

Using the Google Earth ruler tool, I found the length of one N-S line is about 2,500 feet. Many nearby fields, of course, both in valleys and on hilltops, showed faint images of plowing patterns, but nothing similar to the Spruce Hill pattern vertical and horizontal pattern.

Spruce Hill can be found using Goggle Earth starting at Chillicothe, Ohio and by following U.S. Route 50 west to Bourneville, Ohio. Spruce Hill is south of the village and south of Paint Creek. Paint Creek flows along part of the west side of the plateau.

Ever since the early 1800s, there has been talk of a "lost city" at or near this mysterious site. Now, thanks to Google Earth, I believe I have found finally found fascinating evidence that the lost city was once existed on this hilltop!