- Ohio History in 2000 Words
- Mound Builders
- Native Ohioans
- The Ohio Company
- Ohio's Wood Forts
- Indian Wars
- War of 1812
- Ohio's Canals
- Ohio's Road
- Scenic Railroads / Museums
- Underground Railroad
- Civil War in Ohio
Squier & Davis published survey of the site in 1848
In spite of its name, this effigy mound likely was never intended to represent an alligator by any stretch of the imagination. Personally, to me it looks more like a flattened squirrel which were common to central Ohio since the last ice age. Whatever its original concept was, we'll never know. It does appear to be in the shape of a four-footed creature with a round head and a long tail that curls slightly at the end. The original survey map by Squier and Davis (shown above) indicate another mound connected to the midsection of the critter. This is a singular conical mound that was covered with flat stones. That mound and the stones have disappeared from the site. They of course, had their own idea of what the mounded earth represented.
When the first pioneers arrived in this area, they asked Native Americans familiar with the mound what it meant. They of course had no connection with the original builders of the earthwork, but only interpreted the site according to their traditions. In some Native American traditions, there is a dangerous underground creature that roamed the earth. It is quite likely that this tradition when translated became a dangerous under"water" creature which in time became an alligator. Hence, the name Alligator Mound stuck. Whether or not the original builders of this earthwork intended it to be representative of an animal or not, or perhaps it was just a geometric grouping of mounds that were connected.
Alligator Mound has been classified as an effigy mound and is located in Granville. The mound is 200' long and when surveyed it was according to the surveyors about 4' high. The grouping of mounds is located on the top of a bluff overlooking Raccoon Creek Valley 150' below. Besides the effigy mound, there was also a stone path that led to circular stone patio. Early studies indicated that these rocks had been a place of numerous fires. In a 1999 excavation of the mound, radiocarbon dating of ashes found inside the mound indicate that mound dated back to around the 1300s making it part of the Fort Ancient Culture. Whether this is true or not is left to interpretation. Original carbon dating indicated the Serpent Mound dated to about the same time. A later more thorough examination of this mound, proved that it was much older that originally thought and most likely dated back to the Adena Culture. It was suggested that the site had been used for some purposes and that parts of the mound had been repaired. It is possible that people considered to be part of the Fort Ancient Culture used the site for their own purposes, but that the site was actually built many hundred if not 1000 years earlier.
The mound grouping here should be taken in context with the nearby mounds of significance. From this vantage point, if the trees and houses were gone, there would be a clear line of site to a number of mounds as originally surveyed. About 3/4 mile to the east of the effigy mound is an irregular shaped earthwork that also overlooks the valley some 200 feet below. Across the valley is another one of these Fort Ancient irregular type earthworks. Immediately below the effigy mound was a circular earthwork that the surveyors refer to as being "beautiful". About 4 miles to the east are the massive Newark Octagon and the Great Circle earthworks.
The Alligator Mound is today surrounded by a residential neighborhood. When neighborhood construction began encroaching on the sleeping Alligator Mound, it was almost lost to the bulldozer. However, in the 1980s the developer set aside the current 1.5 acre tract of land which now owned by the Licking County Historical Society. The mound is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and located on the eastern outskirts of Granville, at the end of Bryn Du Drive.
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