Saving SPRUCE HILL, 270 acres in south-central Ohio
 

Native American Earthworks & Appalachian Cove Forest

Total cost:$680,000   Balance needed: Zero!!!!!
 

Spruce Hill wasn't built in a day--but it could have been lost in a matter of minutes on the auction block.

COMPLETED!!
 

            Spruce Hill is best known for its significant archaeological feature — a stone wall outlining  the rim of a steep-sided flat-topped hill that was built two thousand years ago by the Native American Hopewell Culture. As long ago as the 1980’s Hopewell Culture National Historical Park began slowly turning the gears of the national government to purchase Spruce Hill as one of the Hopewell Culture’s most important enduring legacies.
                Spruce Hill, however,  is not only an earthworks site, but a natural area worthy of protection, including over 70 acres of wild-flower strewn Appalachian hardwood forests, open fields sheltering rare grassland birds such as Grasshopper Sparrows and Henslow’s sparrows; and a swamp white oak wetlands where native salamanders, wood frogs, and wood ducks breed.

               Coming up for sale too fast for the National Park Service to Save.

 In the spring of 2007, Spruce Hill was scheduled to be sold at the auction block on June 14^th. Strict laws prevented the National Park Service from quickening Congressional processes governing park expansion, a process that often takes over a decade just to authorize the purchase, and another five or more years to authorized the expenditure of money. The reality was -- without immediate action from the public sector -- the historically significant site of Spruce Hill was about to be permanently lost to private ownership and development – just like most of our nation’s Hopewell sites before it. Fortunately a fund-raising drive put together by the Arc of Appalachia and Wilderness East --begun on May 1st -- raised half of the property's purchase with cash and loans. Then, The Archaeological Conservancy, with a loan from The Conservation Fund, provided the other half of the funds. An offer was made to buy the property for a sum of $600,000 and, two days before June 14th, the land was withdrawn from auction.
                A year later, in 2008, , Clean Ohio funding gave the Arc of Appalachia Preserve System, in partnership with Ross County Park District, gained the financial means to buy the property free and clear from its Wilderness East and The Archaeological Conservancy. This initial purchase on Spruce Hill included the entire ridge top, a portion of the original stone walls, and approximately 25% of the hillside slopes. Last year the Arc was able to expand its holdings on Spruce Hill with an additional 32 acres. With a Clean Ohio grant, which matched every donor’s dollar with three more, purchased the forested buffer on the north side of the slope, filling in the triangle between the existing preserve boundary and the adjacent roadway. This acquisition picked up a beautiful hemlock forest, and  strategically prevents future development along the road.

What was so critical about saving Spruce Hill’s earthworks as a prehistoric North American feature?

• The earthworks at Spruce Hill are nearly as intact today as they were back in 1848, when the site was described by early Ohio historians: Squire and Davis.

• Of the major ceremonial sites identified in the Hopewell heartland of southern Ohio, most were geometrical earthworks built in the level fertile floodplains of rivers and creeks (precise squares, octagons and circles), and only a very few were irregular hilltop enclosures.

• Of the 41 primary Hopewell earthwork enclosures that were found intact 200 years ago (the vast majority of them in southern Ohio)-- nearly every one of them has since been obliterated by agriculture or development.  

• Spruce Hill belongs to a category of unusual sacred enclosures known as large hilltop "fortresses" (though likely ceremonial as opposed to defensive), of which less than a dozen have ever been found on a  similar scale, and only a few have been publicly protected. Sister sites that have been protected include Fort Hill and Fort Ancient.

•  Spruce Hill earthworks encloses an astonishing 150 acres -- acreage which has never been thoroughly investigated by archaeologists.

•  The Spruce Hill site is unique in that its walls are made entirely of stone, whereas other sides incorporate mostly earth.

• The stone walls are furthermore unique because of the clear evidence that high-temperature fires once burned along sections of the walls. Findings of molten slag and glazed bedrock have led to controversial debates as to whether metal-smelting furnaces might have operated on the property, either in historic or prehistoric times, debates which beg for additional research.

• Spruce Hill lies in the same region as two lowland geometrical earthworks -- Baum Earthworks and Seip Earthworks, and is the only hilltop enclosure in the Chillicothe Hopewell heartland. 

• Because of its location to known village sites, Spruce Hill may hold answers to many longstanding questions currently posed by Hopewell archeologists.

Four Helpful Reference Maps

Who Were the Hopewell?
Spruce Hill Worthy Natural Area

Supportive Organizations: In addition to the organizations listed above, financial support was received from the following groups: Ohio Archeological Council, the Archaeological Society of Ohio, Shawnee Indian Tribe of Oklahoma, SunWatch Indian Village, the Scioto Valley Bird and Nature Club, the Tri-Regional Indian Organization, the Appalachian Front Audubon Society, and the The Ohio Chapter and the Miami Group of the Sierra Club. Endorsements have been received from the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, the International Crop Circle Research Association, and the Society for American Archeology. Media reporting on Spruce Hill has been covered by Native American media: the Native America Calling radio show, and  Indian Country newspaper (for news article click here), the local Chillicothe Gazette, NPR and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
 

Access to the site for Gatherings

     Site managers are committed to welcoming small-scale gatherings who wish to visit the site for personal, spiritual, and scientific purposes, so long as the native earthworks and natural landscape are preserved, undisturbed and respected. Please call 937-365-1935 to receive a permit.

Blog for Field Reports--Please contribute your sightings and impressions!
 Katharine Parks, Spruce Hill neighbor and volunteer caretaker for the site, walks the boundaries and the trails on Spruce Hill on a frequent basis, reporting natural history observations, field conditions, and boundary issues. You can view her reports and share you own at  www.ohsprucehill.blogspot.com. For an overview of the botanical and zoological history of Spruce Hill, please click here.

****Though convenient and widely used, the word Hopewell is an unfortunate term for a number of reasons. One, the name Hopewell is of English descent rather than Native American, coming from the name of a Euro-American family who owned a famous and extensively excavated earthworks site. Hopewell is therefore not the name these peoples called themselves, as that knowledge has been lost to time. Secondly, we don't know if Hopewell peoples were one tribe, clan, or nation; or if they even all spoke the same language. Nevertheless, the words Hopewell Culture is currently understood to represent one important chapter of our country's first people, our indigenous ancestors. We hope that one day an alternative name will emerge for this chapter of history that is more appropriate and respectful to the lineage of these Native Americans.