American Indian history in Licking County goes back fourteen thousand years, and countless generations of native people lived full and varied lives in this area. Among the best known are the people archaeologists identify as the Hopewell, who left monumental earthworks, including the Newark Earthworks eleven miles away. Vanport, or Flint Ridge, flint contributed significantly to this long human history. At Flint Ridge, a flint layer ten to twelve feet thick stretches eight miles east to west and three miles north to south. The deposit is so large that it shapes the landscape by influencing how and where trees grow and fall, and fourteen thousand years of quarrying by the area's original people changed the local ecology. Formed at the bottom of an ocean millions of years ago, Vanport flint had unique properties that made it valuable for crafting tools used by ancient American Indians and early European settlers, and its rich and varied colors led to its recognition as Ohio's state gemstone. The quarries and workshops at Flint Ridge are traces of Ohio's first industry, where flint was dug from the ground and shaped into many kinds of tools. Study of flint tools found here, including how they were made and used, provides insight into the American Indian people who lived in central Ohio before European contact. The ancient flint quarries have also become vernal pools, temporary wetlands now home to a variety of plants and animals.