Mysterious Ancient Iron Sword and Tools Discovered in Cincinnati, Ohio
Discovered Geography and History of the Western States, 1828
The skulls, in most instances, remain, and great numbers are shown in the museums; and they evidence a surprising variety in the retreat of the facial angle of the skulls. It is affirmed, that marks of iron tools are found upon the wood, that is dug up from considerable depths below the surface of the prairies. A sword is preserved, as a curiosity, which is said to have been enclosed .in the wood of the roots of a tree, which could not have been less.than 500 years old. We have not seen this sword; but we have seen a diminutive iron horseshoe, which was dug up at a depth of twenty-five feet below the surface, in graduating the street near the mansion of Judge Burnet of Cincinnati. It was smaller than the kind of shoe, required for the smallest kind of asses.
A sword too, said to have been enclosed in the wood of the roots of a tree not less than five hundred years old, is preserved in Ohio as a curiosity. Many other instances might, if necessary, be adduced to prove, that implements of iron were in use in this country, prior to its occupation by the whites. Now if a people once have the use of that metal, it is far from probable that it will ever after be lost to them: the essential purposes to which it may be applied would preserve it to them. The Indians however, 'till taught by the Europeans, had no knowledge of it.
