North Overlook

North Overlook. . , On the east side of the Little Miami River between the two bridges (Rt. 350 and I-71) is the site of a former Fort Ancient Indian village, now known as Anderson Village, occupied for about 20 years between AD 1000 and 1200. Clifford Anderson, who owned this property, excavated the site between 1893 and 1936. He uncovered garbage pits, house post patterns, and burials. He recovered thousands of artifacts, some more than four feet below the present surface, indlucing projectile points, knives, hammers, axes, pottery, shells, and bone tools., During the latter half of the 1800s a small town was located in the valley. Called Fort Ancient, this community had a schoolhouse, post office, general store, hotel, church, and railroad station. The estimated population of 300 abandoned the town after the 1913 flood destroyed much of the area., Fort Ancient State Memorial consists of 768 acres, 85 percent of them woodland. The earth walls enclose about 126 acres. The remaining 642 acres include the Anderson Village site in the valley and land on both sides of Rt. 350. The property actually extends to the Jeremiah Morrow Bridge (I-71), which, at 275 feet above the valley floor, is one of the highest bridges in Ohio. The distance from the overlook to the bridge is 1.75 miles. If the earth walls were placed in a straight line, they would extend more than one mile beyond the bridge.