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Finleyville historians Leonard Marraccini and Larry Gallant, members of the Monongahela, Peters Creek and South Park Historical Societies, have located an ancient monolith that once stood on the banks of Peters Creek, a tributary of the Monongahela River.

Mr. Marracinni poses with the present fragment.

The engraved stone once stood five feet high and weighed a ton. It was discovered by a railroad construction crew in 1894, was loaded on a flatcar and delivered to Isaac Yohe, an amateur archaeologist in Monongahela. The stone was moved at least three times in the ensuing years and wound up in the possession of the Carnegie Museum in 1932. Unfortunately, the bottom half of the stone was broken off at some point and its location remains unknown. The top portion was again moved in 1951 to the Washington County Historical Society’s Madelaine Garden where it remains today. In addition to two engraved crosses on the stone, the bottom part of the figure appears to be a frame surrounding a recessed area which might have contained a plate.

Pundits of the 1890s and early 1900s insist that the stone was a territorial marker left by the French Celeron expedition of 1749. But historical evidence indicates that the French expedition came down the Allegheny River from Lake Erie and continued down the “forks of the Ohio” (present-day Pittsburgh) to the Mississippi, never entering the Monongahela River or Peters Creek. They buried lead plates to mark their territory at various places along the rivers.

So, if not the French, who created the enigmatic stone found on Peters Creek? Marraccini and Gallant are trying to locate the missing portion of the stone and are attempting to ascertain the stone’s composition to find if it is native stone or may have been brought from elsewhere. They are also planning to investigate the original site of the find in an attempt to locate the missing object from the “frame.” Their meticulous researches could possibly change local history.

The enigmatic “Copper Plates from Peters Creek” were also found in this area by Isaaac Yohe in 1890. The Peters Creek Historical Society is planning a walking tour of the creek in the spring to ascertain the possible existence of other artifacts and is looking for volunteers to take part in this expedition. Interested parties, please leave a message at lar7436@aol.com.

Special thanks are given to Mr. Clay Kilgore, executive director of the Washington County Historical Society and Dr. Amy Covell, senior archaeologist at the Carnegie for their invaluable research assistance.

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