--Millennium Update--
Fostoria's Millennium-- The Real Thing
December 15, 1999

Well, readers, it's time for the Focus to 'fess up.

These Millennium Update articles we've been doing to the last 11 months?

Well, they really weren't millennium articles. They were century articles-- what Fostoria was like 100 years ago, in the year 1900.

But what was Fostoria like 1,000 years ago, in the year 1000?

Well, it all began with ice, lots of ice.

In the Pleistocene Epoch, the glaciers came. From 2.5 million to 10,000 years ago, the great ice masses ground their way south and covered all of what is now Ohio save for the 22 county Unglaciated Appalachian Plateau in southeast Ohio.

Fostoria lies in the Lake Plains physiographic region.

The glaciers gouged out the river and lake basins and carried tons of soil and rock from the north.

When the temperatures warmed and the glaciers retreated, they deposited the soil and rocks and filled the basins with meltwater.

The Portage River is one result of the glaciation.

In addition, the glaciers left behind huge landlocked masses of ice, broken off from the main body. Insulated by glacial till, these chunks sometimes took centuries to melt leaving depressions for bogs and small "kettle" lakes.

It might not be unreasonable to speculate that such an ice mass was responsible for the dominant land feature in this area 1,000 years ago, the Great Black Swamp.

A line passing through Fremont, Fostoria, Findlay, Van Wert and Fort Wayne, Ind., would correspond roughly to the Swamp's southern edge.

Lush forests of birch, aspen, fir and spruce trees reaching astonishing heights blanketed Fostoria not long after the glaciers receded. Oaks, maples and beeches came later.

It's a good bet that something tall was growing right where you're sitting reading this now.

The transpiration of such a mass of trees covering such a large area resulted in an endless blue haze over the forest.

We owe much to those early forests. All around Fostoria, tons of leaves fluttered to the ground each fall. Dead trees fell over and rotted.

A thick mass of humus was the result of all that vegetable decay. Humus readily absorbs water and, after a time, produces a rich soil ideal for farming.

Many varieties of plants were migrating here as well. Their seeds were carried here on the winds or by birds and animals.

Tulip, poplar, magnolia, bluebells and rhododendron, among many others, arrived in the area.

As the glaciers receded and the climate grew more moderate, animals migrated here. Some of them were probably tromping down Main Street 1,000 years ago.

City Directories from the period indicate that local residents included elk, bison, mastodon, bear, mammoth, beaver, taper and the pig-like peccary.

Some of those beavers, by the way, grew to be eight feet long.

The Mastodon and mammoth were elephant-like creatures and just as large.

By the year 1000, most of the larger animals had disappeared, but there were still elk, bear and bison here when the first Europeans explorers arrived around 1700.

In 1000, there were turkey and deer in this area as well.

Ice, animals, plants. But what about people?

We hate to report it, but in the year 1000 there were probably no people living in Fostoria.

Human beings first came to North America from Asia 30,000 years ago. They crossed the land bridge that spanned the Bering Straits and entered Alaska.

These nomadic Paleo-Indians followed animal migrations for food. After 20,000 years, they had reached the tip of South America and some had found their way to Ohio.

Successive Indian cultures included the Archaic (8,000 B.C.), Glacial Kame (1000 B.C.), and Adena (1000 B.C.).

Thw Hopewell Indians inhabited Ohio from 200 B.C. to 600 A.D. But they didn't locate near Fostoria, confining themselves to southern Ohio.

They are known for the large earthen mounds they built for ceremonial and defensive purposes.

They're called "Hopewell" after Capt. M.C. Hopewell whose Chillicothe farm was the site of the first archeological excavations.

The Hopewell were succeeded by the Late Woodland Indians (600-1300 A.D.).

They, too, were mound builders and lived in southern Ohio for the most part.

As far as archeologists can tell, they didn't even vacation in Fostoria.

By the end of the 1100s, the Fort Ancient Indians, the last of Ohio's Prehistoric Indians moved into the Ohio Valley.

They hunted, fished, farmed, made pottery and built stockades around their villages. They used the bow and arrow.

But as far as Indians living right here in good old Fostoria in the year 1000, the probability is that there were few, if any, humans here.

By the way, this article was the brainchild of Focus general manager Siobhan Gatrell.

I asked why give this article to me? After all, either of that pair of snappy, young Focus writers, John or Rick, could do it.

She said, "No, Leonard, this is about the real millennium. Important stuff was happening back then. We asked you because we wanted an eyewitness."

What did she mean by that?