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(THIS IS the third installment in a series of articles detailing the writer's site-seeing trip this past September.)
 Grave Creek Mound in Moundsville, West Virginia.
First, I want to say that it struck me as a big coincidence that there is a huge Indian mound in a town that just happens to bear the name “Moundsville.” I’m still scratching my head on that one.
Grave Creek Mound, which was mentioned by Charles Dickens in his book, American Notes for General Circulation, is said to be the largest conical mound of the Adena culture. Approximately 60,000 tons of earth are estimated to have been moved to create the mound. That’s 60,000! Why, that’s a... that’s a.. . that’s a whole lot!
Archaeologists date the mound’s construction to between 250-150 B.C. Multiple burials have been discovered at different levels. One archaeologist has been able to determine that a moat once surrounded the mound. In 1838 the base was measured at 295 feet in diameter and the height was measured to be 69 feet. Today it now stands at 62 feet. My question is, who stole the dirt?
I have been to many Indian mounds over the years. What has struck me about my visits to these mounds is the universal theme of the “high place,”as mentioned in the Bible. Consider the pyramids in Egypt and Mexico. Think of the ziggurats in Iraq. Evidence of ancient mounds and pyramids can be found all across the world.
I did not realize it at the time of my visit, but after I returned to Greenville and started doing research for this article, I found out that there has been some controversy in scholarly circles concerning something that was supposedly discovered in the mound.
In 1838, Jesse Tomlinson and Thomas Briggs did some excavating of the mound. They discovered a small, circular stone with cuneiform-type writing carved onto it. The original stone has been lost or misplaced, but at least a photograph was taken of it before its disappearance. Some scholars dismiss the stone as having no archaeological significance, or, at worst, as being a complete hoax.
Other scholars claim that the writing is in an ancient alphabet, such as Iberian. One scholar of pre-Colombian visits to the Americas, the late Berry Fell, surmised the writing to be in the ancient Punic language. He translated it as: “The mound raised on high for Tanach, this tile (his) queen caused to be made.”
Employing my extensive knowledge of ancient Punic, I determined the message to actually read, “Send more wampum.” Obviously written by an ancient college student. Curiously, some people in the 1,800’s thought that the mound builders were, indeed, of a different race than the Indians. Some Mormons believed them to be the Lost Tribe of Israel.
Since I had arrived at the mound before normal operating hours and since I had a number of other places that I wanted to visit before day’s end, I had to content myself with merely getting a few pictures of the mound.
While walking around the perimeter of the fenced-in mound in order to get photos from several angles, I noticed a long, castle-like building across the street. Did these ancient Iberians build a castle as well as a mound, I wondered?
It turns out that the building is of a much younger vintage. It is the old West Virginia State Penitentiary, now turned into a tourist site. Yes, that’s right. You can now actually enter the prison - and leave again an hour or so later!
What kind of person would like to take a tour of an old prison? Actually, I would. But I couldn’t do the time, er, I mean, I didn’t have the time to wait until it opened. (Imagine, actually waiting to get into prison!) In my research I discovered that two films have been made with the prison being a central element, “The Night of the Hunter” and “Fools’ Parade,” which starred Jimmy Stewart (more about him in a later article).
The newly-formed state of West Virginia needed a prison of its own and so this one was completed in 1876, not far from the then-capital of Wheeling. It was the second building constructed by the new state. It was closed in 1995 because the 5x7 foot cells were deemed by the state supreme court to be cruel and unusual punishment.
It is unusual to have two unrelated tourist sites situated right next to each other. If I ever find myself in this neck of the woods again I hope to be able to visit both of them.
Well, time to get back in the car and head to my next Stop - Mount Pleasant Meeting House.
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