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www.columbusmessenger.com<br />
Local author tells the<br />
tales of the Ohio frontier<br />
The tranquil waters of the Scioto River<br />
were once anything but placid.<br />
The Scioto River and its tributaries,<br />
such as Big Darby Creek, Big Walnut<br />
Creek, and the Olentangy River were once<br />
hot beds of activity as Prehistoric and<br />
Woodland Native Americans used them as<br />
major transportation routes.<br />
A new book by Janet Shailer, “Trouble<br />
on Scioto’s Waters — Soldiers,<br />
Frontiersmen & Native Americans: 1725-<br />
1815,” explores the Native American history<br />
surrounding these waterways.<br />
“From 1754 to 1814 fighting raged within<br />
the state between Native Americans and<br />
their adversaries,” Shailer said. “Those<br />
years are vital to understanding the history<br />
of Ohio. By 1843, the last of the Native<br />
Americans left the state after the signing of<br />
the Treaty with the Wyandots. A mere 18<br />
years later the Civil War would start.”<br />
The importance of the Scioto River<br />
watershed to Ohio’s early history cannot be<br />
underestimated.<br />
This river was a transportation artery<br />
for the Shawnee, Wyandot, Delaware,<br />
Ottawa, Seneca, and Miami on their way to<br />
camps in the Pickaway Plains and beyond.<br />
The area between the Scioto River and<br />
the Big Darby Creek was once a cradle of<br />
Prehistoric and Woodland activity. This<br />
area alone has artifacts from the Paleo-<br />
Indian, Adena, Hopewell, and Fort Ancient<br />
cultures. Battelle Darby Metro Park along<br />
Big Darby Creek, for one, is continuously<br />
being studied by archaeologists for its<br />
numerous mounds and Native American<br />
artifacts that are still being discovered<br />
there. Later the European fur trappers and<br />
frontiersmen understood their significance,<br />
followed by soldiers from three different<br />
countries.<br />
“I have included chapters on five men<br />
who were important figures in central<br />
Ohio’s early history,” Shailer said. “They<br />
include Col. William Crawford, Simon<br />
Girty, and Jonathan Alder plus Native<br />
Americans Blue Jacket and Tecumseh. The<br />
Indian Removal Act of 1830 began to drive<br />
the Native Americans out of Ohio permanently.”<br />
Shailer said the Native Americans knew<br />
the Ohio country was a special place and<br />
they helped to make it so.<br />
“I believe that to understand the history<br />
of a great people, we must thoroughly<br />
study them, including walking the ground<br />
where they once lived,” said Shailer. “Part<br />
of this book is a guide to visiting some of<br />
those sites. Native Americans entered<br />
what is now central Ohio about 9,000 -<br />
10,000 years ago.”<br />
For people interested in both Prehistoric<br />
and Eastern Woodland Indians, the Middle<br />
Ohio Valley is an archaeologist’s gold mine.<br />
“The Ohio Historical & Archaeological<br />
Society estimated in the 1880s there were<br />
once 10,000 mounds and earthworks in<br />
Janet Shailer<br />
Ohio alone,” said Shailer. “Unfortunately,<br />
urban development has left us with few<br />
remaining sites to see and explore.”<br />
The Ohio History Connection has documented<br />
dozens of Prehistoric and Eastern<br />
Woodland sites all along the edges of the<br />
Scioto River.<br />
“In Jackson Township/Franklin County,<br />
archaeological maps show dozens of Native<br />
American sites along the edges of this<br />
waterway,” said Shailer. “Other creeks in<br />
the Scioto River basin were also important<br />
for development. On the western side of<br />
Franklin County lies Big Darby Creek,<br />
another important transportation artery<br />
for several tribes. In the eastern part of<br />
Franklin County, Alum Creek runs south<br />
from Mount Gilead and joins Big Walnut<br />
and Blacklick creeks in (now) Three Creeks<br />
Metro Park. The Adena built at least seven<br />
mounds in the Alum Creek Valley.”<br />
The book includes a guide to those who<br />
would like to visit sites once occupied by<br />
these First Ohioans. Books may be ordered<br />
online from the publisher Orange Frazer<br />
Press at www.orangefrazer.com or via<br />
Amazon.com.<br />
“Janet Shailer has captured a long-overlooked<br />
portion of Ohio’s history, a past era<br />
that we are still feeling the effects of<br />
today,” said Rick Palsgrove, managing editor<br />
of the Columbus <strong>Messenger</strong><br />
Newspapers and director of the Groveport<br />
Heritage Museum. “The stories she tells of<br />
the Native Americans, military, and frontiersmen<br />
who helped shape Ohio are fascinating.<br />
Her listing of pertinent historical<br />
sites that help tell the story of those times<br />
is helpful to those who wish to see the<br />
places where this history took shape.”<br />
Janet Shailer is a former editor with the<br />
Columbus <strong>Messenger</strong> Newspapers and has<br />
written two other history books including<br />
“Images of Grove City,” and “Images of<br />
Modern America: Grove City.” She also wrote<br />
the novel, “The Austerlitz Bugle-Telegraph: A<br />
King, A Goddess and a Chronicle of<br />
Deception,” as well as three children’s books.<br />
Over<br />
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