Three hundred and twenty million years ago, a large meteor crashed into present day southwestern Ohio. It left a crpytoexplosion structure (crater rim), five miles wide in what is now Adams County, Ohio, near the town of Peeples. The force of the meteor strike created a plateau, on which the Fort Ancient culture built the Great Serpent Mound. This mound is largest serpent effigy in the world, constructed approximately 900 years ago.
The Fort Ancient peoples were the dominant culture in the southern Ohio region from 1000 A.D. to 1500 A.D. They were the descendants of the Hopewell culture, which existed within the region from 200 B.C. to 500 A.D. The people of the Fort Ancient culture were a semi-nomadic group who possessed a working knowledge of the solar and lunar alignments. It is commonly accepted that the mounds and animal effigies which they constructed were essentially large lunar calendars, designed and built in alignment(s) with the solstices and equinoxes. Through archeological record and research, it is known that the Fort Ancients built towns and structures possessing the same alignments.
In 1847, Ephraim Squire and Edwin Davis, amateur archaeologists, first discovered, surveyed, and sketched the Great Serpent Mound. The earthwork snake measures 1,348 feet long and ranges from one foot to five feet in height, with an average of three feet. The main feature of the effigy is the snake’s head, which is 120 feet long and represents an open mouth swallowing an egg. Squire and Davis’ studies of the site reveal that the serpent’s head is aligned with the sunset of the summer solstice, and the coils of the tail are aligned with the winter solstice and the equinoxes. Their research and findings on the Great Serpent Mound, as well as other sites, would be published by the Smithsonian Museum in 1847, under the title Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. The volume, first printed in the Smithsonian’s Contributions to Knowledge series, contains over three hundred pages including forty-eight hand sketched maps and over two hundred wood carvings. It is considered to be the greatest archeological contribution to the locations, size, makeup, and meanings of the mounds constructed by the Adena, Hopewell, and Fort Ancient cultures.
The Great Serpent Mound was first excavated by Frederic Ward Putnam of Harvard University in 1886. During that time, Putnam recorded that the mound was in a deteriorated condition. Treasure hunters and erosion by the elements had caused a significant amount of damage to the effigy. Putnam purchased the property and surrounding historically significant properties on behalf of the Trustees of The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, for the purpose of their preservation. In 1900, The Peabody Museum ceded the original sixty acres of land containing the mound to the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society, the present-day Ohio Historical Society. In 1995, radiocarbon dating performed on charcoal found during an Ohio Historical Society sponsored excavation led scholars to believe that the mound was built in 1070 A.D., four years after the appearance of Halley’s Comet. This created some speculation by historians on the subject that the mound may have been built as a ceremonial site.
The Great Serpent Mound is once again being threatened. However it is not by rain, snow, or drought, but vandals. The sight has been plagued by New Age groups, who believe that the sight is an “intergalactic portal,” and a catalyst for “nature’s energy.” By all accounts, the “New Agers” first began their assault on the mound during the Harmonic Convergence of 1987. Since that time, the New Agers have held ceremonies at the site in which they chant, meditate, and most damaging, bury crystals and amulets on the mound.
The most recent assault on the Great Serpent Mound occurred in late 2012, and was ledc up by a group known as “Light Warriors” from the New Age group, Unite the Collective. The group claimed to have buried hundreds of small muffin shaped amulets, which they call orgonites. Orgonites are small homemade objects consisting of plastic resin, aluminum foil, and quartz crystals (sounds like powerful stuff). The Adams County Sheriff’s Department has located only three of the inept objects, and has full intentions of arresting and prosecuting the perpetrators of the vandalism.
The most outrageous claims regarding the Great Serpent Mound come from the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens series. The show claims to prove that the mound was constructed by and served as a landing site for extraterrestrial visitors who mined fuel for their craft.
StrangeHistory.org views this as a blatant disregard for the intrinsic and historical value of the Great Serpent Mound!!!!!
Here Are a Few Other Strange History Prehistoric Sites in America!!!
Dinosaur Valley State Park Glen Rose, Texas
Dinosaur tracks litter the riverbeds of the Paluxy River at Dinosaur Valley State Park. Located four miles west of Glen Rose, Texas, the park contains over 1,500 acres of camping, fishing, hiking, mountain biking, and of course, an amazing array of dinosaur tracks dating back millions of years.
General Sherman Tree Sequoia National Park, California
The General Sherman Tree, located near Three Rivers, California, is considered to be the largest known single stem tree in the world. Believed to be between 2,300 and 2,700 years old, the giant sequoia has a total mass of over 52,000 cubic feet and towers 275 feet. The tree makes its home within the Sequoia National Park, offering camping, hiking, and sightseeing among some of the largest and oldest trees on Earth.
Meteor Crater Winslow, Arizona
Located twenty miles east of Winslow, Arizona, Meteor Crater, aka Barringer Crater is a true natural wonder with a circumference of 2.4 miles, 4,100 feet in diameter and 570 feet deep. Named for Daniel Moreau Barringer, the first person to suggest that the giant crater was form meteoric impact, Meteor Crater offers an interactive, modern visitor center, Astronaut Memorial Park and tours of the crater’s rim.
And Yes! Visitors From Space Created This!!!