Indian Head Rock

Article taken from The Massillion Independent, September 29, 1898


Those mysterious people, the mound-builders, of whom there are no definite records that may be translated, seem to have had a fondness for certain individuals parts of the North American continent between the great lakes and the gulf and no further west than the states now bordering the west bank of the Mississippi. One of their favorite localities, says the Illustrated American, was about the mouth of the Scioto river, emptying into the Ohio at Portsmouth, Ohio. All over this section are the remains of forts and mounds and long lines of fortifications and trenches, and the relics dug from them have been numerous. Notable among these records of a bygone race is the subject of our sketch--Indian Head Rock, in the Ohio river, opposite Portsmouth and near the Kentucky shore. This great boulder, estimated to weigh about five tons, is exposed only at extremely low water, and on its surface, partly below the water line, is an Indian head, carved in deep and distinct lines, which have stood the attrition of years and are to this day a testimony to the aborigines of America, who by such rude means as this and others sought to carry to posterity some signs by which they would not be forgotten.