June, 2015

“Indian Old Fields” was a totally new term for me.  I love a day when I learn something brand new!

I happened to be in Clark County and saw Indian Old Fields mentioned in a tourist brochure, but it was vague as to their whereabouts.  The helpful local history librarians at the Clark County Library in Winchester told me how to get there.

There was a historic sign and a whole lot of open country.  It was worth the side trip for me though.

“Indian Old Field, or simply Old Field, was a common term used in Colonial American times and up until the early nineteenth century United States, by white explorers, surveyors, cartographers and settlers, in reference to land formerly cleared and utilized by Indians for farming (corn fields or vegetable patches) or occupation.

Pioneer settlers, in applying for their land grants, exhibited a strong preference for sites located along major trails and particularly those coinciding with these Old Fields, as the Native Americans had often prepared land for settlement. Thus, early land survey plats emphasized these features and many place names from New England south to Florida represent vestiges of these places.”  ~~  Wikipedia