Featured Article

from Indian Artifact Magazine (date unknown)

The Saga of the Toephner Mound

Picture a young man, age 11, traveling in his parents car down the main route to downtown Columbus, Ohio, to go to church on a Sunday morning. He doesn't really "like" church in this stage of his growing up years, but would rather be with his friends 'exploring', a common activity in 1951, before many of today's distractions such as computer video games and daytime TV were introduced. 'Exploring' meant roaming the landscape including fields and farm lands, after assigned chores were completed, and building things from found scrap materials and....finding arrowheads, randomly displayed on recently tilled land.

Back to the drive down the highway to church. Along the highway about half way into town was an enormous Indian mound (it always seemed so much larger than it really was) on the right side of the road, about 300 yards form the Scioto River. My parents indicated this was a large burial mound for ancient Indians, but nobody really cared much about it anymore, thus the briers, weeds, stands of bushes and small trees covering its surface and almost obscuring it during the foliage season.

For a young man of 11, his imagination went wild every time we went by that mound. He often thought about who was living at the mound and what it concealed. This was especially important day dreaming in light of the expected "humdrum" experience predicted at the end of the inward Sunday journey. This became My Mound over the years, and led to the creation of a durable interest in archeology, now closing in on 50 years. Not until I visited the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society museum, the official state museum located on 15th Avenue at the edge of Ohio State's campus in Columbus, did I realize the significance of this early Adena mound.

My interest was heightened, especially when I found out that the mound in question, the so called Tophner Mound, was almost 20 feet tall and had never been excavated. Some of the early Woodland-type artifacts that typically are found in this type of edifice were attractively displayed in the "Ohio State Museum" (as it was known) and I was really curious about whether the same kinds of artifacts were deposited in the mound. This is what is commonly called a spiritual beginning in avocational archeology. Little did I know at the time that the story of the Tophner Mound would become much more involved concerning its eventual fate.

Enter the world of attempted historic preservation and the accompanying gymnastics practiced on the winding trail of dialogue which of ten accompanies well intentioned attempts to protect our prehistoric past. But to an admirer in his ignorant period, c. 1951, nothing this complicated was contemplated. The fact was that I looked forward with anticipation each Sunday morning to seeing My Mound, which always seemed to have a new story to tell as we proceeded on our way to downtown Columbus.

The active period for the mound began sometime around 400 BC when the prehistoric Adena people constructed at least part of a ceremonial burial mound 1.5 miles above the junction of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers near what is now Columbus. This was one of several like structures at this point along the Scioto. Through the historic period the mound was known as first the Anderson Mound, then the Pope Mound (named after the family who owned the site for 50 years), and finally the Toephner Mound, named for the local car dealer Joseph J. Toephner, who in 1946 purchased the property where the mound was situated.

Toephner bought the properly, amounting to 3.5 acres, from Clara Pope, widow of W.C. Pope, and immediately announced his plan to erect a truck maintenance facility once the mound was eliminated. As a side note, the Pope's had preserved the mound throughout their ownership, even building a Pergola on its top, where they often sat in the cool summer evenings. Family members enjoyed the 20 foot mound for years and Mr. Pope kept the mound and surrounding area landscaped throughout his ownership.

Now the plot thickens. On March 22, 1946, an area resident, Margaret Rollins, called Edward Thomas, Curator of Natural History of the Ohio Archeological and Historical Society, to report that preparations were underway to bulldoze the "Pope" mound located in a lot at Dublin and Ridge streets. The "for Sale" sign was still present and the bulldozer was essentially clearing the site. Mrs. Pope, at the time a widow, was living with a daughter in California. Officials of the museum quickly arranged a meeting with Mrs. Rollins and advised here to write to Mrs. Pope in California, to request that Mr. Toephner delay the mound destruction process until a salvage excavation could be conducted by the Ohio State Museum.

Mr. Toephner contacted the museum to see if they wanted to dig the mound. Finally, in March 1948, an agreement was reached to provide the museum with salvage excavation rights although no money was available. On September 10, 1948, Mr. Toephner again contacted the museum officials to encourage them to initiate their salvage dig even though he had no imminent building plans for the site. Then on February 9, 1949, an irate citizen called the museum indicating that a bulldozer was present at the base of the mound and leveling operations were about to begin.

After much pressure was exerted by a number of local area citizens and groups, Mr. Peety, the bull dozer operator, was ordered by Mr. Toephner to discontinue his leveling activity. A history of stalemates with potentially dangerous consequences was fast developing.

In Ohio State Museum circles discussions continued through 1949 about potentially purchasing the Toephner Mound and turning the area into a state or county park. In fact, during the 1930s former museum director, Harry Shetrone, had tried to start a campaign to buy what was then called the Pope Mound and turn it and the surrounding land into a park. Nothing developed from this earlier attempt and in 1949 Mr. Toephner would not sell the properly to the museum.

Fortunately, no further efforts were made to level the mound without an archeological excavation, until 1953, and no further use of the property was planned until then. As a result of Mr. Toephner's need to level the mound by early 1954, emergency funding was finally obtained for a salvage excavation. Officials of the museum subsequently met with Mr. Toephner to jointly plan for removal of the mound, beginning October 23, 1953.

Contracts were drawn up with Igel Construction Company to strip down all but the lowest 4' by 25' portion, and work began. During my Sunday trips past the mound I anxiously viewed the mound being destroyed and anticipated any public reports on what was being found. As the bulldozers completed the initial tear-down work under close supervision of the museum staff, under the direction of Dr. Raymond Baby, features and artifacts were noted/recorded to the extent possible.

Dr. Baby's theory was that if this was a typical Adena mound, most of the features and artifacts were mostly likely at or below the base line. The project team decided to complete the most significant part of their research through the winter of 1953-54 by erecting a wooden shack over the remaining portion of the mound. Mr. Toephner and the museum staff had set an April 30, 1954 lamination date for the project. Excavated dirt was to be spread over the south side of the property to level the slope bordering the Scioto River. It was also agreed the finished mound area would tee graded. The excavation was completed on May 12, 1954 with the removal of the excavation shed. There were several published newspaper accounts of the results of the excavation and I readily digested this information. My Mound was gone but since that date I never hesitate in looking at the site when I pass by and contemplate about what might have been.

A brief review of the contents of the mound was published in Archeology of Eastern North America in 1985 by Rae Ann Norris, and in the early 1980s I obtained a set of slides taken during the dig by Dr. Stanly Copeland, a well known avocational archeologist.

Several months ago I decided to renew my interest in gathering more information about the history of the Toephner Mound. I contacted Martha Otto, Curator of Archeology of The Ohio Historical Society. Her assistance and support

facilitated the writing of this article and her help is appreciated. In addition to multiple inhumations, typical of

Adena grave sites, a sample of significant individual and community artifacts recovered during the approximate six month excavation are as follows:

Four rectangular sandstone and banded slate gorgets. Two expanded center banded slate gorgets. Two Adena tubular pipes, one a very unusual example somewhat resembling the later Hopewell platform pipes, having an upright bowl and curved stem entering the bowl at a right angle. This pottery example represents a substantial design enhancement in relation to the diagnostic straight tubular form and the modified tubular type found in several Adena sites along the Scioto River, south of Columbus. This unique pipe is currently on display at the Ohio Historical Society museum. The second example is the more typical straight tubular form crafted from Ohio pipestone. It is very fragmentary, with only a small portion remaining.

This discourse, obviously does not represent either a scientific treatise or a through excavation report, but instead is a summary of the fate of an Adena mound, which has disappeared from our landscape. Today’s post WWII generation probably are unaware that it once stood just 30 yards from what is now called Riverside Drive along State Route 33, very close to the center of Columbus. What a special piece of our preserved heritage it could have been. We as responsible citizens need to do everything possible to protect the remnant landscapes created by our earliest neighbors, otherwise this part of our history will never be remembered or appreciated.