Indian Ridge Museum

Preserving, Interpreting, & Teaching the Past, to Prepare for the Future

Indian Ridge Museum

Col. Raymond C. Vietzen

Col. Raymond Charles Vietzen was born in 1907 on West Ridge Road in Elyria, Ohio on the Vietzen family homestead. Raymond was the seventh of eight children. His mother’s maiden name was Von Zimmerman, a family with connections to Amherst, Ohio. Raymond’s mother wanted him to become a Lutheran minister; instead Vietzen’s interest in prehistoric man led him to become an archaeological scientist, anthropologist, author, and artist. He was also an auto mechanic for GMC trucks. His original auto shop was located at 227 Temple Court in Elyria, until it burned. He then relocated the business to his home (8714 West Ridge Road, Elyria, Ohio). Col. Vietzen was very much a student of archaeology and anthropology. He was also a prominent writer (17 books published on archaeology) and a prolific artist (executed several hundred paintings).

Ohio Indian Relic Collectors Society - Archaeological Society of Ohio

With the help of Dr. Leon Kramer, LaDow Johnston, Dr. W. V. Sprague, Hubert Wachtel, and Frank Burdett, Col. Vietzen founded the Ohio Indian Relic Collectors Society, now known as the Archaeological Society of Ohio (A. S. O.). The fee for one membership was just one dollar. The society quickly grew to 100 members and is now the largest state archaeological society in the United States. Col. Vietzen’s wife, Ruth (Bliss) Vietzen was the first female officer of the society. They were married in 1931. Col. Vietzen was elected secretary and treasurer; he also served as president for a term.

The early meetings of the Archaeological Society were held at the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Museum (now the Ohio Historical Society). At that time, it was located on High Street in Columbus, Ohio. Erwin Zepp was the curator of that museum and a good friend of Col. Vietzen.

Local History Connections

Col. Raymond Vietzen later focused his efforts on the Lorain County Historical Society and his Indian Ridge Museum in Elyria. At both organizations, he worked to study and preserve local history. He served as first Vice President of the Lorain County Historical Society.

Indian Ridge Museum

Col. Vietzen opened his Indian Ridge Museum in 1930 on a corner of the Vietzen family homestead, which he purchased from his parents. The Vietzen family homestead was settled by his grandparents. The museum was originally part of the local archaeological society called The Elyria Archeological Society Museum. His home was in front of the museum, both of which he and his wife built. The home was of the Western Reserve Style. They brought in trees and landscaped the property, as the land was just a plowed field. This property was located at the southwest corner of West Ridge and Fowl Roads in Elyria, Ohio. The land itself was actually an American Indian site, where Col. Vietzen found evidence of the existence of prehistoric man, dating back to the Paleo era.

Col. Vietzen opened his museum to house his archaeological finds and to enlighten others on those people who once called this land home. The museum boasted having “12,000 Years of History on Parade.” The facade of the museum was actually part of a 1920s filling station which had been located just down the road. The museum did not only house prehistoric artifacts, but also had a large collection of antique guns, and the coat in which Gen. Custer was killed. Col. Vietzen proudly displayed a gun belonging to Geronimo.

Several log structures (furnished with period antiques) were relocated on the Museum grounds. One of the log houses on the grounds was constructed by Jacob Shupe. Other cabins relocated to the Museum grounds included: the Honeysuckle Cabin from Kentucky, Mingo cabin (a stage coach relay station stop), and Tymochte Cabin (built in 1795, the oldest on the property).

"Never having the opportunity to actually visit the Museum with its artifact collections intact, I have been able to research and read the Colonel’s publications to learn about his fascinating Museum. Thousands of school children, college students, men, and women alike took the opportunity to tour the fascinating Museum and well-maintained grounds over the Museum’s sixty-five years of existence. Congressman Mosher once held his congressional outings on the beautiful property. So much history was lost with the sale and dispersal of the collections that comprised the Indian Ridge Museum.” -Matt Nahorn

Archaeological Studies

To form his impressive museum, Col. Vietzen worked on many local archaeological sites. These sites included The Franks Site in Brownhelm, Ohio; The Engle-Eiden Site in Sheffield, Ohio; The Riker Site in Tuscarawas County, Midvale, Ohio; and The Seaman Fort Site near Milan, Ohio. The Franks Site comprised two large prehistoric village sites, totaling about eighty acres of land. These two sites were located on the banks of the Vermilion River.

Archaeological work at the Riker Site was conducted by the Sugar Creek Chapter of the A. S.O. Col. Vietzen served as site supervisor of this particular site. There were over two thousand triangular points (a late type of arrowhead), almost two hundred ovate knives, and over twenty stone pipes recovered at the Riker Site. The Seaman Fort Site was located on a strip of land that dropped off between seventy-five and one hundred feet on either side to the Huron River and Hunt Creek, an ideal campground or fortified site. Col. Vietzen was working on the site on December 7, 1941 listening to his portable radio when Pearl Harbor was bombed. This site is still being researched by the Sandusky Bay Chapter of the A. S. O.

The Franks Site in Brownhelm, Ohio, located along the Vermilion River encompassed about eighty acres of land and was inhabited by the Erie Indians, the last prehistoric peoples to live in the area. They called the southern shores of Lake Erie their home, and the Lake still bears their name. The Franks Site was an Erie Village where Col. Vietzen conducted much archaeological research for his Museum and subsequent books, in the early 1940s. Col. Vietzen served as site supervisor for Oberlin College when they worked on the site.

Col. Vietzen also worked on sites out of state as well. One of the most interesting and fascinating sites was the Glover’s Cave site in Christian County, Kentucky. Col. Vietzen worked on that site on and off from the 1930s to the 1980s. The site provided information from the Paleo Indian era through each of the prehistoric eras. The site was a wealth of information to the field of archaeology and to Col. Vietzen. As a result of his extensive archaeological work in Kentucky and Tennessee, Kentucky Governor A. B. Chandler awarded Col. Vietzen the “Colonel” status in 1957. This was the same year he published The Saga of Glover’s Cave, an entire book on the prehistory of Kentucky and that cave. Col. Vietzen was also named an Honorary Citizen of Tennessee.

Kentucky provided Col. Vietzen with several other sites, one of which was the Dr. Brake farm. In the 1964 Col. Vietzen uncovered the Elk Lick Cache, comprising of seventy flint blades. The blades were found in a pit measuring thirty-three inches deep and seventeen inches wide. The blades were carefully stacked in layers and levels with red ocher and sand in between each one. After studying the artifacts, Col. Vietzen felt that the blades were either crafted by a single person or a group of his apprentices. Sadly, the blades were all sold separately during the auctions of the Vietzen museum. We continue to work to re-acquire these blades.

Connections to Today

Col. Vietzen was not only a student of prehistoric man, but he was also a friend of the Native Americans of today. Adopted by two prominent groups of American Indians whom he lived among for a time, the Sioux and Navajo, Col. Vietzen gained important first hand knowledge of these people. His Sioux name was Se-tis-tis-tee or High Flying Eagle, and his Navajo name was White Horse. His adopted Siouan father was Chief Iron Tail, one of the composites of the Buffalo Nickel. Chief Iron Tail was actually in the Battle of Little Bighorn and fought against Gen. Custer. He was in his nineties when Col. Vietzen was adopted about 1940.

Publications for the Future, and in the End

Besides being an archaeological scientist, Col. Vietzen was an artist and author. Throughout his life he completed several hundred paintings. He also authored seventeen books from 1941 to 1995. The first book was Ancient Man in Northern Ohio. His last book was entitled Prehistoric Indians From Darkness Into Light. Ruth, his wife, actually finished the final book for him, as he passed away in 1995.

Several auctions were held to sell the contents of Indian Ridge Museum and his personal collection after Col. Vietzen’s death. The collection was broken up through these sales to people throughout the United States and the world. Ruth Vietzen passed away almost four years later in 1999. The dissolution of his Indian Ridge Museum was a tragic loss to not only our local history but regional and even national history.

With the death of the Vietzens, the archaeological world lost two knowledgeable and active people.

In 2000 Matt Nahorn resolved to begin recollecting artifacts from the Vietzen museum in an effort to preserve the legacy of the Vietzens and the local history lost, with the sale and dispersal of artifacts from the Indian Ridge Museum.

Indian Ridge Museum photo gallery

Matt Nahorn at Indian Ridge Museum, in late 2000, not long before the building was demolished and site cleared. Col. Vietzen’s Indian Ridge Museum was founded in 1930, on the southwest corner of the Vietzen family homestead (corner of W. Ridge and Fowl Roads). Matt saved the original entrance door to the Museum.

Matt Nahorn sits on the front steps to Col. Raymond and Mrs. Ruth Vietzen’s Elyria home in late 2000. The house and museum were built by the Vietzens, and the house was in the Western Reserve style. Matt and his salvage crew saved sandstone and the front pillars that comprised the front entrance to the house.

Shupe Cabin at Indian Ridge Museum. This crudely constructed log structure was built as a temporary dwelling by Jacob Shupe, south of the Shupe Homestead. It was later dismantled and rebuilt at the Indian Ridge Museum, along with several other log structures as part of museum displays.

Preserving, Interpreting, & Teaching the Past, to Prepare for the Future

Indian Ridge Museum - from old to new