Tremper Mound

[Sunny Side]

In a previous post I mentioned my wife’s great grandfather was William Tremper. William was in Ohio politics and he knew one day he would have to grant OSU permission to dig the Mound on his property. His mother, the Haymens, owned 2000 acres heading north on the east side of the Scioto River. The Haymens/Trempers owned the farm. William and his brother had an interest in archaeology and they dug the many small mounds along the river in the late 1800s, but never dug the big one in their backyard. They knew it was a tall order to explore what they called Elephant Mound. They decided to do so in August 1908, years before the the professionals arrived. Richard wrote the diary of the 5 day dig in this little book. Very interesting read. They went from the center down. It just so happened they were almost exactly above the pipe cache by just 3 feet.

 

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[The Grim Reaper]

So they did an excavation before Wiiliam C Mills came along and did his in 1915. Did not know that.

https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Tremper_Mound_and_Earthworks

 

[Sunny Side]

Yep. I was mistaken. My wife’s grandfather was Richard Tremper not William. Richard illustrated the book. They were brothers. Many people don’t know this. No one in the world knows this until this very day. Lol.

And the artifacts she has, well that’s another story.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Did they ever come to realize it wasn't an actual Effigy Mound? The shape was formed by the building and burning of Charnel Houses.

 

[catherine1]

Great that the wife's family retained these artifacts for so long. Do you have any of the cache blades discovered? I unearthed a cache of Adena blades around 30 miles east of the mound. Would be great to compare my cache, with what was found in the mound. The giant cache of blades discovered after this, are in a GB museum. Would love to read that diary of digging the mound. Five days seems short. And if you have any tube pipes made from the Ohio Pipestone quarry across the Scioto from there, you can post those also. I would also like to know what they found in the small mounds along the river, if any artifacts have the history of those dig finds? Now the Grim knows more about that mound than me, and he most likely has boots, on the ground, in the area...........

 

[RustyRelics]

I live about 15 miles give or take away from the mound, or what's left of it. Modern farming made it so that you can't really tell a mound was there.Beautiful pipes have come out of there.

 

[newnan man]

Remember most history is just like this. The story everyone knows and then the real stories of things few oeople know. Interesting. I too found a small cache of Adena blades in downtown Portsmouth years ago. I guess it would not have been too far from Tremper Mound.

 

[Tdog]

How to make new thread ?

Click "+Post New Thread" button in upper left and go from there.

 

[RustyRelics]

Remember most history is just like this. The story everyone knows and then the real stories of things few oeople know. Interesting. I too found a small cache of Adena blades in downtown Portsmouth years ago. I guess it would not have been too far from Tremper Mound.

What!?

 

[Sunny Side]

Great that the wife's family retained these artifacts for so long. Do you have any of the cache blades discovered? I unearthed a cache of Adena blades around 30 miles east of the mound. Would be great to compare my cache, with what was found in the mound. The giant cache of blades discovered after this, are in a GB museum. Would love to read that diary of digging the mound. Five days seems short. And if you have any tube pipes made from the Ohio Pipestone quarry across the Scioto from there, you can post those also. I would also like to know what they found in the small mounds along the river, if any artifacts have the history of those dig finds? Now the Grim knows more about that mound than me, and he most likely has boots, on the ground, in the area...........

I think I have two or three tube pipes from the area. Most of what they found was donated to Portsmouth library. She still has some nice relics. A couple of large flint ridge beauties, a few pipes, and a half dozen or so very large celts that are beautifully polished. Stuff keeps showing up over the years that I am surprised to see. Interestingly, she has quite a few pure crystal nodules that were found in the mound.

 

[newnan man]

I think I have two or three tube pipes from the area. Most of what they found was donated to Portsmouth library. She still has some nice relics. A couple of large flint ridge beauties, a few pipes, and a half dozen or so very large celts that are beautifully polished. Stuff keeps showing up over the years that I am surprised to see. Interestingly, she has quite a few pure crystal nodules that were found in the mound.View attachment 1776791View attachment 1776792

Does the library still have the donated items? It would be great to see them. I have a feeling they have been long ago re-homed? Threads like this are very informative and interesting.

 

[Sunny Side]

No. They are long gone. I want to say the Weirtz (sp?) family bought some of it. The aforementioned family was in the construction business and built a ton of homes in Portsmouth area when it was booming around 100 years ago. Many awesome recoveries were made and he kept them all.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

No. They are long gone. I want to say the Weirtz (sp?) family bought some of it. The aforementioned family was in the construction business and built a ton of homes in Portsmouth area when it was booming around 100 years ago. Many awesome recoveries were made and he kept them all.

If im not mistaken I think David Kuhn, a local lawyer, bought the pieces at the library and at Shawnee Lodge.

 

[catherine1]

All of the artifacts at the museum in Portsmouth, excavated, from the land of tomorrow. Artifacts predate the future.