Northeast Ohio is full of archaeological treasures, although much of it is overshadowed by visibly massive finds like the Great Serpent Mound further south in the state. However, Cleveland once had mounds built by ancient indigenous peoples, there are beautifully preserved earthworks in the Cleveland and Columbus areas, and there’s a great variety of evidence of ancient cultures still buried in the local ground. Today, we’re going to take a virtual visit to a closely-guarded secret just beyond the greater Cleveland area — it’s a site known as Paleo Crossing, and it hides some of the earliest examples of ancient human activity in this part of the world. Yes, seriously, and it’s right here in Northeast Ohio! This fascinating archaeological discovery in Greater Cleveland is truly one for the history books. Check it out:

Across the United States, there are various sites that hint at an ancient culture.
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Arizona/Wikimedia Commons
This picture shows the Murray Springs Clovis Site, a spot in Arizona that's one of the best known examples of Clovis-era human activity. If you haven't heard of the Clovis peoples, you're not alone! This ancient group lived in the Americas some 11,500 years ago, and they're best known for their "Clovis points," a certain style of arrowhead.
Clovis points were often made from flint, ivory, and bone, but they're few and far between nowadays.
James St. John/Wikimedia Commons
Most specimens encountered will have been resharpened or repaired, as few Clovis points have survived the march of the ages intact. However, these Early Paleoindian artifacts are immediately distinguishable thanks to their leaf-shaped design and notably flaked texture.

Clovis points are more closely associated with this culture than any other artifact due to the nature of these ancient peoples. They hunted big game and were largely nomadic as a result. In fact, there's only one known Clovis burial. Due to their nomadic nature, sturdy artifacts like these are about all that survived of this culture, which many consider to be the first human inhabitants of the New World.
Clovis artifacts were so elusive, in fact, that little was known about this culture before one site in Medina County began to reveal their secrets.
Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD/Wikimedia Commons
As a little bit of backstory, I was studying archaeology back in the day before I switched my major to communications. I first learned about the Paleo Crossing site as a footnote in one of my textbooks, and I was fascinated. When I was a reporter with the Medina Gazette, I had the opportunity to sit down with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History to ask questions about this site. And boy, did I!

The site, pictured here, is located in Sharon Center on private property. While the average person like you and I couldn't visit it, an excavation led by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History was conducted here in the early 1990s. The uncovered artifacts are still on display at the museum, and they're worth seeing in person. Why, you ask? These aren't your typical arrowheads, my friend. These were made by the earliest residents in Ohio.
At the Paleo Crossing site, archaeologists found Clovis points (mostly made of flint), refuse pits filled with charcoal, and post holes.
Cleveland Museum of Natural History/Facebook
While the Clovis points are the most tangible artifacts from the expedition, the most notable find was arguably those post holes. They imply that a structure once stood at the site, meaning that this Sharon Center property houses the remains of the oldest known structure in North America. While the site was previously dated to around 11,000 years ago, advances in radiocarbon dating have drawn its age into question. Now, it's "undated," and digging to further disrupt the site is unnecessary given the vast collection of over 10,000 tangible artifacts recovered.

Let's talk more about those post holes, however. This structure is significant as it shows that these migratory peoples treated this spot as a stopping point, possibly across a few generations. This base camp undoubtedly hosted at least one family unit, but given the extensive number of artifacts, it's possible that several families resided here at once.
Analysis of artifacts found at this site demonstrates that ancient Clovis peoples migrated across vast distances, possibly as far as 620 miles if they followed rivers.
Cleveland Museum of Natural History Website
The flint used to make the Clovis points found at this Cleveland area archaeological site was revealed to come from Southern Indiana, and the people that made the stone tools likely traveled to hunt migratory game. In addition to shining light on how these ancient people moved from area to area each season, these findings also revealed how the culture expanded some 11,000 years ago. Perhaps it demonstrates a slow shift toward more sedentary culture, as the regular return to one site in a familiar area has since earned the group classification as the first residents of the Great Lakes region.
A similar site out near Canton, Noble’s Pond, is considered a rendezvous point for ancient Clovis people from all around the region ... so this culture was highly active here!
Cleveland Museum of Natural History Website
To put the timeline into perspective, the Medina County site is dated to roughly 10,980 years before present (± 75 years, if you're interested to learn about the possible margin of error in estimating years). This dates the site back to around 9000 BCE. At this same time, humans in the Fertile Crescent were in the early stages of developing agriculture, and ancient people in China were following closely in their footsteps. Cultures across the world were beginning to make pottery or perfecting the art, and humans were just tipping their toes into the art of metal working. When archaeologists say this site is ancient, they mean ancient ancient!
In July of 1992, the Paleo Crossing site in Medina County was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Cleveland Museum of Natural History Website
And this honor was well earned! In addition to providing a glimpse into the earliest residents in the Cleveland area, this spot shows what life looked like for the very first American residents. And, to be clear, this area was fairly close to the ancient shores of Lake Erie. Princess Ledges in Brunswick actually marks the historic boundaries of Lake Erie's shore, so the area in southern Medina County likely would have been filled with lush vegetation and an array of animals. For a hunter gatherer culture, this made the area rather like an oasis that was well-suited to life.
As megafauna like mammoths died out, people adopted more sedentary lifestyles, and the Clovis culture slowly disappeared.
Cleveland Museum of Natural History Website
Additionally, the Younger Dryas period of history was causing climatological conditions to shift as the last effects of the Pleistocene epoch faded into legend. However, the culture didn't totally disappear! Instead, it shifted. DNA evidence shows that circa 80 percent of Native American populations are descended from the Clovis peoples. And they'd still be something of a mystery if not for sites like Paleo Crossing in Medina County!

 

This notable archaeological discovery in Greater Cleveland is truly unforgettable, as it has granted invaluable insight into how the Clovis culture operated in the area some 11,000 years ago. To this day, however, many Clevelanders don’t realize just how special our area is. Here, the development of human culture can be observed in artifacts that may still be buried beneath us.

This area isn’t just valuable in learning about human history — our rocks are so old that Cleveland fossils predate the dinosaurs! Learn about the ancient armored fish that called Cleveland home some 400 million years ago to keep your history deep dive going.

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