Dayton, Ohio Here We Come...

Claude and I had enough time we could put together to take an overnight trip somewhere for this anniversary weekend. We have spoken harshly of Dayton, Ohio for the last eight years. Everytime we drive to Michigan we drive through Dayton on I-75. It has been, is, and appears always will be, under construction. Hence the disparaging remarks about Dayton.

As I plotted where we could go for this trip, it just suddenly felt right to go to Dayton and make peace with this city on some level. Give it a fair chance to show the good things about it and leave truly knowing we only dislike the I-75 portion of Dayton. I searched for some possible tourist sites to visit, came up with four, eMailed my research to Claude, got his approval and made our plans.

Friday morning, February 15th, we awoke and prepared to head out. Breakfast was had at the McDonald's in Dry Ridge. Love my two biscuits and a Dr. Pepper to start a trip. Then on to Dayton Claude drove.

Our first stop, and subject of this particular post, was SunWatch Indian Village. We pulled into a parking lot with only one car in it. There was someone coming out to get in that car and leave. We had this neat little tourist site completely to ourselves. Well, except for the lady running the visitor's center. She welcomed us. Took our senior citizen priced ticket money and led us into the video that always accompanies tourist locations. They are a good place to get your basic information. The video was very informative and we were prepared to visit the museum that is part of the visitor's center next.

Armed with the video knowledge we were able to easily grasp the items in the museum and increase our knowledge a bit.

This diorama sits in the center of the museum's main room. It is a great replica of the way the village probably looked. It sat at the edge of the Great Miami River. That would be the foreground of this picture. There was a stockage of interwoven branches around the village. The garden was outside this stockade and can be seen in the right of the picture. The village was laid out in concentric circles. The stockade is the outer circle. Inside the stockade circle is the housing circle. Inside the housing circle is the storage and trash bin circle. Inside the storage and trash bin circle is the ring of burials (I found this interesting). Inside the ring of burials is the plaza with the center post complex.

In the museum we saw displays of pottery, tools made with available materials, an amazing drawing of a deer with his skeleton in the drawing and the bones identified that were used for everything, a replica of the interior painted walls of buildings, a replica of a family working with corn, a tribal leader starting the harvest celebration, and many more things. With this increased knowledge we were ready to head outdoors to walk the village and the buildings they have reconstructed in it.

This is the view of Sunwatch Village from the deck of the visitor's center. We would walk through the entire village by ourselves. What a treat. Now, the fun part was it snowed off and on. We were bundled up in our coats and would pull our hoods over our heads when it snowed. It was actually quite invigorating.

The Fort Ancient Indians occupied this village for 15 to 20 years and then moved on.

In the picture above on the left is the framework of a building they are beginning to reconstruct. If you carefully look just to the right of that framework and out a little you are at the center of the plaza and there is found the center post complex. The entire village is aligned with these and the seasons could be predicted by them. The house on the far right behind the tree is called The Solstice House. On December 21st the shadow of the tall center post would align exactly with the center of the doorway. The house just to the left of the Solstice House is called the Big House. Approximately April 24th and August 20th the shadow of the tall center post would align exactly with the center of the doorway of the Big House. The two building close together at the center back are reconstructed residences. Each of these homes would hold six to sixteen people.

Archeologists believe a matrilocal residence pattern existed among the Fort Ancient Indians living at SunWatch Village. When a girl married, her husband lived with her and her family. They would eventually build their home near her mother's family. One of the ways this is known is by pottery that was found. Distinctive patterns were found in house clusters. Also, certain diseased and genetic traits were found by scientist in these house clusters. Amazing.

The doorways to each of the buildings is extremely short. We learned that the men would get to a height of about 5' 6" and the women to about 5' 2". The men would live to be about 36 years old and the women about 28 years old.

With all this knowledge, let me show you some of these places in SunWatch Village up close.

This is Claude in the center of the plaza at the center post complex.

This is it Big House and it's interior and the view of the center post complex from it's front door.

From the Big House we followed the path to the two residential homes. I'll post a picture of Claude in front of the doorway to one of these homes. (Please note he is listening to the recorded information about these homes. We each got a set of ear phones and enjoyed the information given at 18 points in our walk around the village.) There is also a picture of the interior of one of the homes and the interior of the ceiling which is also the outside roof. Please remember that 6 to 16 people lived in each of the dwellings. Not a lot of space for 6 people, much less 16. Goodness.

We left these two residential homes and walked across the center of the plaza to the center post complex. I've posted the picture of Claude standing there. Then we walked to the framework of a home they are going to construct next. As we walked there we noted several of the grave sites. The Fort Ancient Indians would bury their dead and then go to the Great Miami River and bring back large stones to lay over the tops of the grave.

The framework for the next building to be reconstructed at SunWatch Village is my next picture. If you look real carefully through the framework on the left you can see the two residential homes. If you look real carefully through the framework in the center you can see the Big House. The plaza area is in between the structures. All of these buildings are just inside the stockade.

We walked on the pathway between the stockade and the markers for the foundation places of other buildings to the Solstice House. The pictures below are the Solstice house, its interior (note the way the walls are constructed) and the view of the center post complex through the front door.

Outside of the village was an area we couldn't find identified in any of the recordings or signage. We asked the visitor center attendant when we returned and she said it was built by the Lakota Indians. They hold a Powwow there every June. Everyone can come and enjoy it.

This was a great start to our quick weekend trip. We learned a February anniversary means you might have to deal with weather a bit if you travel locally. We learned there are layers to the life that has taken place in this area. So many times we live and don't think back to all the history that has happened under our very feet.

This was a great tourist destination. I could highly recommend it. They have several big events when the weather is warmer. It would be fun to go back and visit during one of those events.