Ebook A History of Jackson County, Ohio

Introduction — Jackson is the seat of justice of an Ohio county of the same name. It is situated on an eastern branch or the Scioto river, in latitude 39 degrees, 15 minutes, north, and longitude 82 degrees, 41 minutes and 48 seconds, west. It was laid out in 1817, on the north half of Section 29, in the Scioto Salt Reserve. This township had been set aside by Congress May 18, 1796, on account of the salt springs within its limits. These springs or licks, are as old as the hills, for that erosion which carved out the valleys between, exposed the strata from which they ?ow. They were discovered by the wild animals of the forest, and became one of their most favored resorts long before man appeared upon the earth. No better evidence of this is needed than the great quantity of fossil remains of extinct animals, which have been discovered from time to time in the neighborhood of the licks. Fossil bones — The story of the bones found imbedded in the valley of Salt creek forms an important chapter in the history of these licks. Fragments have been found in nearly all the wells, cisterns, mineshafts and railroad excavations in the lowland adjoining them. The greater number had decayed, but many of the larger bones were so well preserved that some of them were easily identified as having belonged to the mammoth, the mas todon, the megatherium and other large animals of the prehistoric period. According to Hildreth, the Scioto Saline may be ranked' with the Big Bone and Blue Licks in Kentucky for antiquity, from the fact of the fossil bones of the mastodon and elephant being found at the depth of thirty feet, imbedded in mud and clay. The remains of several of these extinct animals were discovered in digging wells for salt water, along the margin of the creek, consist ing of tusks, grinders, ribs and vertebrae, showing this creek to have been a noted resort for these huge mammalia. The bones of the mammoth predominated in the deposits discovered.