Paleo Crossing Clues to Ohio's Earliest Residents

Located near an old farmstead in Medina County, the Paleo Crossing archeological site is one of the earliest known sites of human colonization of the Lake Erie watershed. Excavation by the Museum’s Archaeology Department in the early 1990s uncovered artifacts, post molds, and pits from the Paleoindian Period, dating to approximately 13,000 years ago. These remnants of human activity—left behind before accounts of events were recorded in writing—provide clues about some of the earliest known residents of our region.

Evidence shows a northeastern pattern of movement the source of Wyandotte chert, a kind of rock typically found in south-central Indiana and western Kentucky, to the Paleo Crossing site in Northeast Ohio, where stone tools made from this rock were discovered. The discovery indicates that these early Ohioans covered a distance of 280 – 317 miles (450–-510 km)—participating in one of the most rapid and far-reaching cultural expansions of the time.

Curator of Archaeology Dr. Brian Redmond discusses research on the Paleo Crossing collection of Clovis stone tools from the late Ice Age.