History Knox
This history piece is a weekly featured authored at Knox Pages each Saturday by Mark Sebastian Jordan.
FREDERICKTOWN — After the tentative identification of Fredericktown’s elusive Ghost Hill in last week’s column, I’ve discovered a different source, presumably more authoritative, that disagrees.
According to the United States Geological Survey, Ghost Hill is slightly further west of the site indicated by Google Maps.
The USGS web site shows the hill to be west of the South Bay of the gravel pit on the north side of Fredericktown, instead of on the southern edge.
Whatever the hill was on the edge of South Bay, it was mostly quarried away.
The USGS topographical maps show this hill to the west to be slightly more present, though it looks like it, too, has been mined. I can’t help but wonder which was the original Ghost Hill?
Was it always the west hill, or did the identification switch to that hill after the south hill was mostly leveled?
It is not immediately evident from the maps what the geological nature of the western hill is.
Was it a natural structure formed by glacial and river deposits? Or is it even possible that both hills were once part of a complex of Moundbuilder earthworks?
I’m starting to understand, now, why Ghost Hill has been so elusive to previous chroniclers.
Each time you think you’ve got it, it melts away into nothingness!