Over the last 13,000 years the Cuyahoga River has brought many different people to live in this valley.

It began with Paleoindians who followed their food here after the Ice Age. The Archaic people came next and were the first to settle here in seasonal camps.

Later, Woodland peoples created burial mounds to honor their dead. The Whittlesey people built walls to protect their villages and stored food supplies. We have no written record of the lives of the valley’s native people before the 1700s. They are “prehistoric.” These different prehistoric groups changed and adapted to the wild Ohio landscape over time. Archeologists study artifacts that they find in the ground to understand past peoples’ lives. Artifacts are anything made or used by humans.

When have you had to work hard to solve a puzzle? Did you have many clues to help you find a solution?

Sifting through garbage may not sound very fun, but archeologists do this type of work all the time! We don’t throw our garbage just anywhere, and neither did past peoples. Archeologists can find the garbage piles left behind (called middens) and search through the contents. These middens can hold clues to what life was like for the people that lived here long ago.

Can you discover one type of object archeologists have found in Cuyahoga Valley National Park by piecing together the clues? If you think you’ve figured it out, check your answer by viewing the unscrambled photo.