The Brokaw Site is located off of U.S. Route 40

U.S. Route 40

U.S. Route 40 is an east–west United States highway. As with most routes whose numbers end in a zero, U.S. 40 once traversed the entire United States. It is one of the original 1920s U.S. Highways, and its first termini were San Francisco, California, and Atlantic City, New Jersey...

 in Richland Township

Richland Township, Belmont County, Ohio

Richland Township is one of the sixteen townships of Belmont County, Ohio, United States. The 2000 census found 13,571 people in the township, 8,514 of whom lived in the unincorporated portions of the township.-Geography:...

, just west of St. Clairsville, Ohio

St. Clairsville, Ohio

St. Clairsville is a city in Belmont County, Ohio in the United States. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 5,057 at the 2000 census. This county seat of Belmont County has been nicknamed "Paradise on the Hill." St. Clairsville was named after...

. The site was added to the National Register

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 on 1976-06-17.

History

The site was once the location of a prehistoric village originally settled in the Archaic period and later by the Middle to Late Woodland people,as the discovery record has turned up projectile points and ceramics dating from those time periods.

The main village site is located on the relatively flat top of a hill roughly about 1240 feet (378 m) above sea level. The site is estimated to encompass 2-3 acres. The site during its occupation overlooked a roughly-hewn hunting trail, later used as the outline of the first roads and eventually becoming National Road

National Road

The National Road or Cumberland Road was the first major improved highway in the United States to be built by the federal government. Construction began heading west in 1811 at Cumberland, Maryland, on the Potomac River. It crossed the Allegheny Mountains and southwestern Pennsylvania, reaching...

. This vantage point, plus the presence of four springs which flow downstream into a feeder creek of the Ohio River

Ohio River

The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...

, made this site ideal for settlement.

The property was bought by John Brokaw, who settled into a homestead on a part of the same hilltop. It was during his ownership that several artifacts were found, resulting in Brokaw authorizing a dig site during the years from 1972-1974. After extensive study, the investigating team approached Brokaw about placing the site on the National Register. Brokaw informed the team that the site was directly above a large coal seam and had already given permission for the strip mining of the area. However, the mining activity was delayed indefinitely as the site was eventually placed on the Register by the National Park Service

National Park Service

The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

.

Today

The entire hilltop was cleared around the turn of the 20th century as evidenced by the bordering Locust and Wild Cherry trees in the fence lines and has been used as pasture and cultivation land. Much of the surrounding area has been radically transformed, as an ongoing housing development is slowly encroaching on the site and a reservoir was dug out east of the site.