Is that Cincinnati and Chilicothe @ 2:50?

 

Yes they must have been counting the Mound Building era. There were Native American mounds all over the basin including one where Fountain Square is today and a larger one in the West End (origin of the name "Mound Street.")

^ Here's a map showing some of those earthworks (warning, it's a PDF): http://sandmancincinnati.com/images/Maps/Cincinnati/1800_1825/1815-Cincinnati.pdf

 

I think they assumed that anyone with enough spare time and resources to build ornamental earthworks must have lived in cities of some sort. The Mississippian peoples would have been the reasons for St. Louis and Cahokia, and the Fort Ancient Civilization the reason for Cincinnati and Chilicothe.

Amazing. I wish I had learned more about these civilizations in school. Lots of mystery!

The screen lights up with a blast of color in North America between 1875 and 1900.

There is still a mound in Norwood.  It's a shame that the ones where Downtown Cincinnati is now were destroyed.  They were obviously big enough that they discouraged development of those lots for several decades, but it's unclear how big they were.  The Serpent Mount is very long of course, but it is not high. 

 

Also, those earliest maps of Cincinnati illustrate how the basin was doomed to have an illogical street layout from the very get-go.  The way it all shifts at John St. makes no sense from a travel standpoint.  I get that somebody else owned and platted that land, but come on.  There should have been a diagonal street platted from Fountain Square northwest into the West End, toward what became Spring Grove Ave. 

Also, when I was a kid we moved to a newly-built house and my dad was cheap and didn't pay to have the yard sodded.  It was a very hot summer and the grass he planted barely grew, so we ended up finding two tomahawks and about a half dozen arrowheads in the dirt.  One of the tomahawks was much better crafted than the other...I found myself kind of insulting the unseen maker of the sucker tomahawk in my mind. 

There is still a mound in Norwood.  It's a shame that the ones where Downtown Cincinnati is now were destroyed.  They were obviously big enough that they discouraged development of those lots for several decades, but it's unclear how big they were.  The Serpent Mount is very long of course, but it is not high. 

 

Also, those earliest maps of Cincinnati illustrate how the basin was doomed to have an illogical street layout from the very get-go.  The way it all shifts at John St. makes no sense from a travel standpoint.  I get that somebody else owned and platted that land, but come on.  There should have been a diagonal street platted from Fountain Square northwest into the West End, toward what became Spring Grove Ave. 

 

Hmm. Never knew those lots were developed later.

 

And the street layout...Ludlow Street has always been one that sticks out for me on those old maps. It aligns with uh, nothing.

Very cool video! So, we were actually urbanized before Boston and NY? :)

St. Louis was urbanized in 1,000AD?

St. Louis was urbanized in 1,000AD?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia

^ What confused me is that they had St. Louis, and then Cahokia 100 years later. I suppose the mounds on the St. Louis side of the river are assumed to have been built prior to Cahokia.