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Culture


Tools and other artifacts unearthed in the plains reveal that sophisticated ancient cultures once lived along the creeks. There are a number of Adena mounds hugging the creek banks and uplands throughout the watershed. Excellent firsthand accounts of Native American life in the Darby landscape during the 1700’s were recorded by James Smith and Jonathan Alder. Both were white settlers living at the edge of the “wilderness” when kidnapped as young boys by the Indians.

The Darby Plains were reported to have been the best hunting grounds for both the Wyandot and Shawnee Indians. One of the largest Indian Villages was on the banks of Big Darby, just northwest of Plain City.

pioneers farming
Early pioneers found the Darby watershed difficult to farm.
© TNC

However, with the signing of the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, all of the Indians in Ohio were forced to leave their homes and live in Northwestern Ohio.

However, bands of Wyandots, Shawnees and Delawares routinely left their permanent villages on hunting expeditions south into the Darby Plains. Eventually, under pressure of more settlers, summer and fall hunting expeditions ceased, and the Indians were forced from the area by 1820.

Remnants of these times are still evident today and provide a tangible link to Ohio’s former “wilderness” condition. Farmers and homeowners continue to unearth arrowheads and other artifacts in fields and gardens.
Adeda mound
Sophisticated ancient cultures once lived along Big and Little Darby Creeks, leaving behind evidence such as this Adena mound. 
© TNC

Many of the region’s roads, fields and fence rows were laid out during initial European settlement as shown by historical land records, while others reflect ancient Indian trails between the Black Warrior River and Coosa River watersheds, the Cahaba drains portions of seven counties in central Alabama.

The pioneers of the 1800’s found the Darby plains beautiful, but, for them, very challenging for agriculture. Settlers worked to control the wilderness, and it was only after drainage tiles were installed and the land was tilled that the rich, wet prairie was converted into farmland.

The weathered gravestones of Bigelow Cemetery and Smith Cemetery, (some dating back to 1814) serve as reminders of pioneer life on the Darby plains. Hundred-year-old covered bridges link us with this past. Families still farm the land of their great-grandparents. Water still comes from wells and children still fish and swim in the creeks that wind past their barns, houses and schools.

Today, the people of the watershed are working to ensure the long-term survival of the Darbys and their hidden treasures. In 1991, The Nature Conservancy declared the Darbys one of the “Last Great Places” in the Western Hemisphere and offered to help facilitate a partnership of federal, state and local agencies, private organizations and watershed citizens. The goal of the partnership is to be a resource for the citizens of the watershed who want to protect the Darbys.

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