Hopewell Culture Administrative History

CHAPTER FIVE
Relations with the Community (continued)

Prisoners as Neighbors

Mound City Group National Monument enjoyed equally close relations with the Chillicothe Federal Reformatory, administered by the Department of Justice, from the post-World War II era until December 1, 1966, when the facility transferred to state control and subsequent ownership. As with VA psychiatric patients, the monument experienced unexpected visits from escaped federal convicts causing periods of extreme excitement and anxiety at the otherwise quiet, pastoral area. The maintenance utility building and superintendent's residence were within sight of the federal prison's lookout towers. Located immediately to the south, guards with binoculars and high-powered rifles could easily survey much of the national monument. One of Custodian Clyde B. King's first meetings with the warden concerned National Park Service plans to reforest the park, and whether changing the area's common grassland and cultivated farm field landscape might meet with the Federal Reformatory's opposition. While not expressing any objection to the plan, the warden noted that there were other forested areas nearby, especially along the Scioto, and that escapees always tended to head for the nearest woodland for cover. As the park grew more forested to reflect its prehistoric Hopewellian landscape, it might become a primary initial destination point for escaped prisoners. [16]

As long as the prison remained a next-door neighbor, park managers perpetually feared that visitors, employees, or family members might be taken hostage, killed, or have their vehicles hijacked. The apprehension began on September 2, 1952, when a riot at the institution drew heavy traffic and a crowd of spectators outside the prison entrance on State Highway 104. Bureau of Prisons personnel put down the uprising without experiencing any escapes. On December 15, 1962, on a Saturday morning, three inmates staged a break-out from the main compound. Two men were apprehended at the park's boundary fence, while the third sprinted to the mound enclosure area before two guards collared him. [17]

The 1963 incident prompted John C. W. Riddle to purchase a pistol for protection against desperate escaped convicts. Because the park lacked commissioned law enforcement rangers and no one else on staff had firearms training, the gun and its ammunition remained safely tucked away in the superintendent's combination safe. The break-out also prompted a Bureau of Prisons employee to appear in the visitor center lobby to conduct a special briefing on safety and security measures for Mound City Group employees to observe while working in the shadows of the Federal Reformatory. The recommendations came in handy as another escape by three prisoners came during the late afternoon of February 25, 1965. One prisoner was shot and killed upon crossing the open farm field and reaching Mound City Group land. Another man simultaneously halted at the fence, having been shot in the lower abdomen. The third convict darted behind the utility and residence buildings, then sprinted for the west bank of the Scioto where a dozen guards recaptured him. [18]

Numerous escape attempts characterized the mid-1960s when the federal prison downsized in anticipation of its transfer to state control. On May 3, 1965, a group of inmates commandeered a private contractor's pickup truck to punch through the main gate only to become involved in a head-on collision with a Federal Reformatory truck approaching from the outside. Inmates hijacked yet another prison-owned truck and sped west away from Mound City with prison guards in hot pursuit. Park employees watched the activity from the visitor center's office area, relieved that the danger did not involve them. On the evening of July 26, two inmates walked unobserved away from a grass-cutting crew, only to be recaptured the following day in Circleville, Ohio. Thirteen months later, on August 26, 1966, four prisoners tried to climb the rear fence as guards fired their automatic weapons. Three immediately surrendered, but the fourth scaled the barrier and ran to the wooded area along Mound City Group's riverfront. The escapee was apprehended the next day in Chillicothe. [19]

While Mound City Group's water and sewage needs were initially controlled by the prison, so, too, did its electricity come from the same source. This dependency became acutely apparent at 5:20 in the evening of January 19, 1951, when the park's electrical current stopped flowing. Utility workers at the Federal Reformatory traced the problem to the underground high tension lines. Six days later, they determined that not only had a previous splice deteriorated, but the line had shorted out at three other known points. Buried four feet beneath grade, any repairs would be temporary on the decaying line. The prison lacked the funds to repair the line, and advised Clyde King to negotiate with the local power company to provide electricity. The Columbus and Southern Ohio Electric Company constructed a quarter-mile line from State Highway 104 along the park's south boundary to the utility building and residence. After one month living and operating without electricity, the new lines were activated on February 19, 1951, and the park began purchasing its power from the local utility company. [20]

While the area's three federal agencies cooperated on fire protection, the Federal Reformatory exercised exclusive maintenance of Mound City Group National Monument's pre-MISSION 66 road system. This constituted Portsmouth Road, the common boundary road. Under an informal agreement, the prison maintained the gravel surface and park maintenance workers mowed the roadside. In 1957, the National Park Service surveyed and installed boundary markers in the area. In mid-1964, the prison's warden told Superintendent John C. W. Riddle that Portsmouth Road was superfluous to the prison's needs as it had built its own periphery road for patrols and it lacked funding to provide upkeep on Portsmouth Road. Henceforth, maintenance of the rough road, perennially dusty or muddy, was Mound City Group's responsibility. [21]

Close relations continued with state prison managers of CCI. State prison patrols continued the practice of including the visitor center loop road on their routine patrols, particularly during the evening and nighttime hours. Park rangers began using CCI's indoor firearms range in 1977, and attended training sessions there. [22]

Escape attempts continued under CCI management and prompted General Superintendent Bill Birdsell to issue emergency procedures in the event of a prison break. The official park policy read as follows:

1. As a preventive measure, employees will remove keys from all vehicles left unattended. This includes Government vehicles as well as personal vehicles.

2. Upon notification of an attempted escape, or the suspicion of one, the person notified will inform the park staff. Staff members are to be alerted in this order: General Superintendent, Interpretive Specialist, Administrative Assistant, and Maintenanceman. A telephone call will be made to the quarters (774-1356) to notify the occupants there to lock all doors and to take cover. A similar call will then be made to the Interpretation-Maintenance Office to alert all employees on duty in that building to take cover in the basement office.

3. The responsible employee on duty in the Visitor Center will warn all visitors and employees on duty to stay inside the Visitor Center building. Immediate contact will be made with visitors on the grounds, through personal contact and/or the use of the megaphone, directing them to return inside the Visitor Center in an orderly manner and without running.

4. In the event of gunfire from the towers, visitors and employees must be cautioned against exposing themselves or attracting gunfire while running for shelter. During gunfire, employees and visitors on the grounds are to take immediate cover on the north side of the nearest mound or earthwork, until conditions are such that it will be safe for them to be brought inside the Visitor Center.

5. When all visitors and employees in the area are safely within the Visitor Center, all outside doors will be locked. An employee will stand by in the lobby to allow entry to uniformed law enforcement personnel or late arriving visitors.

6. The responsible employee in the Visitor Center will call CCI to notify prison security of the situation at [Mound City Group], and to request notification when the situation is under control.

7. Visitors and employees will not be allowed to leave the Visitor Center until word is received from CCI authorities that the area is safe. When notification to this effect is received from a CCI official, the Interpretation-Maintenance Office and the quarters will be notified by telephone.

8. Under no circumstances will National Park Service employees attempt to apprehend, or assist in the apprehension of, escaped prisoners. Our responsibility rests solely in the protection of visitors and employees. The apprehension of escaped prisoners is the responsibility of trained law enforcement officers, and this will be handled under CCI direction. To repeat, the safety of park visitors and employees takes precedent over all other responsibilities. [23]

The policy remained in effect during a December 1979 attempted escape which CCI guards thwarted a fleeing inmate a mere thirty feet from the monument's south boundary. The cooperative relationship between CCI and Mound City Group became formalized in a memorandum of agreement signed in August 1983. The agencies pledged cooperation in the event of prison breaks, and in exchange for continued CCI patrols in the park, the monument permitted its grounds to be used for observation posts and staging areas in the event of a prison riot or breakout. [24]

On August 27, 1982, the Department of Justice transferred all of its 1,200-acre holdings in Chillicothe's federal reservation area to CCI for $8.4 million. Ohio corrections officials announced beginning of construction in 1983 of the proposed "CCI 2" to ease the state's overcrowded prisons. Located across State Highway 104 from "CCI 1" and Mound City Group National Monument, the new facility was conceived to replace the Columbus Correctional Facility, itself under court-order to close by the end of 1983. In mid-October 1982, CCI Superintendent Ted Engle and employees of the state's contractor, George S. Voinovich, Inc., of Cleveland, met with Ken Apschnikat to discuss the project and its impact on the national monument. The group devised a screening plan along State Highway 104 opposite Mound City Group National Monument within the two-hundred-foot buffer specified in the land transfer deed. While the extant treeline and powerline would remain, new vegetation introduced to fill screening gaps had to be compatible with the powerline's height and not interfere with the highway right of way. [25]

A change in the Columbus Statehouse, budget cutbacks, and a redesign exercise combined to delay groundbreaking for CCI 2 until 1984. During construction, Mound City Group experienced severe littering, boundary encroachments, noise, and blowing dust. The single-building style of prison, favored in the post-World War II era, gave way to the 1980s predilection for multiple buildings. CCI 2 became two, five-hundred-bed residential structures united by a common services and classroom area. The $52 million facility, completed in the spring of 1985, also included a minimum-security honor dormitory accommodating 250 inmates. Unlike CCI 1, it had no guard towers, only "security devices" on the perimeter and two fences crowned with razor-ribbon wire. Alarms were also installed in the elaborate fencing along with twenty-four-hour perimeter patrolling. The official ribbon-cutting ceremony for the "Ross Correctional Institution" came on March 27, 1987. [26]

Close cooperation and coordination between prison and park officials characterized the 1980s. CCI workers removed the monument's abandoned underground oil tank using a CCI-owned front-end loader in July 1982. CCI also removed the old telephone poles and lines along the south boundary in 1983. Also in 1983, the park issued a special use permit to CCI to continue farming alfalfa on 35.5 acres of newly-acquired monument land known as "the North Field." The following year, CCI agreed to the local electric company removing overhead electric lines north of Portsmouth Road onto CCI land. In 1989, Superintendent William Gibson negotiated and signed a memorandum of understanding with Ross Correctional Institute based on the similar agreement with CCI covering emergencies, patrols, and alarm responses. Gibson amended the original agreement with CCI to include agricultural uses on the North Field in exchange for the visitor center's connection to CCI's sewage disposal plant. [27]

Recognizing the abysmal quality of the park's well water, negotiations in 1993 yielded progress in agreement to connect with one of the prison's water system. A 1994 memorandum of understanding with Ross Correctional Institution granted it the privilege of haying 130 acres at Hopeton Earthworks in exchange for Mound City Group connecting to its water system. [28] This arrangement was cancelled in 1998.

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