Archeological Investigations Part 24

South of Dillon they extend for a mile in a slight depression.

Beginning at the Soldier's Home in St. James, the largest number yet found out of the swamp region lie for 2 miles on both sides of a small creek running eastward north of the Frisco Railway. These reach from low land subject to overflow to an elevation of fully 50 feet up the hillsides.

Several groups occur in Pulaski County. Four miles southwest of Big Piney post office, near the site of what is known as "The Ranch House," is a little wet-weather stream along both banks of which are probably a hundred of these structures. Farther up this stream are two other groups, the three including a distance of about 4 miles in length between their outer limits. West of these and south of Bloodland is a fourth group belonging with these.

In the level bottom between Big Piney River and the branch flowing from the Miller Spring 2 miles from Big Piney post office a number of these mounds formerly existed; and on the opposite side of the Big Piney, in an extensive bottom, were many of them. All these have now disappeared under cultivation.

On the outer bend of the Devil's Elbow, on Big Piney 3 miles above its mouth, some of these mounds stood. They are described as being from 2 to 3 feet high; the number was not stated, but there is not room for many in the narrow strip where they were located.

In the extreme western part of Morgan County, at Stover, is a group scattered over an area at least half a mile across in any direction.

The distance between the mounds varies from 25 to 150 feet. They are mostly on gentle slopes, though some are on the crest of the ridges.

Many of these are well preserved, some of them having never been under cultivation.

In Osage County there are more than a hundred at the eastern edge of Rich Fountain. They are in low flat ground which is muddy or even boggy in wet weather.

It will be noticed that all those from Alton westward and north-westward are in line with the route from southeastern Missouri to the plains of Kansas and Nebraska.

Practically, however, the northern limit of this type, in great numbers, is in St. Francois County, near Farmington. From here they extend almost continuously into Louisiana and Texas.

In nearly every part of southern Missouri east of the Iron Mountain Railway they occur in closely connected groups, reaching sometimes for miles except where the continuity is broken by a slough or other unfavorable condition. They are found everywhere--on high, well-drained levels; on sloping ground, sometimes so steep that it may well be called a hillside; in low "crawfish land"; in swamps where, in the driest weather, even after a prolonged drought, they can be reached only by wading through water or muck. The last, however, may have been more easily accessible when built, their present condition being due to the general subsidence of this region during the earthquake period of 1811. The existing sloughs and sluggish bayous are the widenings and extensions of streams which at the time these mounds were constructed were no doubt bordered by banks above ordinary overflow and readily reached by canoes. Manifestly the country was well populated, and therefore presumably practically timberless; consequently the flood water would rapidly pa.s.s away and the streams not be choked by drift and other debris as is the case at present.

Various theories, most of them advanced by persons who are but slightly, if at all, familiar with the country, have been propounded to account for mounds of this character. Their vast number has led some writers to believe that they can not be artificial but must be due to natural phenomena; as, for instance, that these, as indeed all mounds, were piled up by floods, Noachic, glacial, or local; or that they result from the industry and energy of burrowing animals, such as foxes, badgers, ground hogs, rabbits, prairie dogs, gophers, chipmunks, or even ants; the character of the a.s.sumed flood or the species of the supposed burrower depending to some extent upon locality, but princ.i.p.ally upon the theorizer's insufficient knowledge of animal industry or of the action of torrential waters. Others are convinced they are formed by the piling up of earth around a bush, clump of gra.s.s, stone, or other object acting as a nucleus about which wind-borne material may acc.u.mulate--overlooking the fact that clay, gravel, or gumbo soil can not be carried by wind, and that lighter soil or sand will form elongated instead of circular ma.s.ses. Another supposition is that they are due to stream erosion; flood waters was.h.i.+ng away the soil between them and thus leaving the earth composing the mound in its original position. The same objection applies to this as to the wind-blown theory, namely, that we can not imagine water acting with such mathematical regularity and intelligent discrimination, especially upon slopes which lie at all sorts of angles with the trend of the current.

Persons who recognize their human origin have suggested that they were erected as stands for hunters, from which they could detect game at a greater distance, or could take better aim as the animal pa.s.sed; or perhaps as camping places while waiting; but in many places more than half the area of the ground over several acres is occupied by such piles of earth, promiscuously distributed. This implies more hunters than animals.

For a long time it was supposed that they were burial mounds, like so many such structures found over the country; but this idea has been dispelled by the failure to discover in them any evidences of such purpose; no human bones nor any of the artificial objects commonly placed with the dead have ever been found in them unless under such conditions as to show their presence was accidental.

Two very plausible theories have found general acceptance: That they were the sites of dwellings, placed on them to be out of the mud in wet weather; and that they were in the nature of garden beds, thus elevated for growing any food products which needed a comparatively dry soil, or might be injured by temporary acc.u.mulation of water from excessive rainfall.

But they were not "residence mounds" or "house sites" in the sense that they furnished a base or foundation for structures which were used as dwellings; for there has never been found on their surface or in the earth immediately around them any of the debris invariably accompanying Indian huts or houses, such as fireplaces, ash beds, burned rocks, broken implements, or fragments of bones and pottery.

These considerations also interfere with a full acceptance of the hypothesis that they are remains of houses built of wood and covered with earth. It is true that such evidence is very frequently found in other localities; but to establish the fact that they were residence sites, refuse of this kind should be found wherever the mounds occur.

J.B. Thoburn arrived at this conclusion from the resemblance of some of them in their outlines to the gra.s.s-covered houses of the p.a.w.nees; and it is believed that this tribe in its migration from the south followed approximately the route along which these small elevations are found. When the p.a.w.nees--a.s.suming they were the builders--pa.s.sed on westward they could not procure timbers of sufficient strength to hold up the earth, so they used light frames and covered them with gra.s.s.

Bushnell arrived earlier at the same conclusion. He says, concerning a few mounds of this character in Forest Park, St. Louis: "In the case of the seven mounds on the elevated grounds, the finding of potsherds, pieces of chipped chert, and the indication of fire, all on what appeared to have been the original surface, would point strongly to their having been the remains or ruins of earth-covered lodges." He gives citations from early explorers in support of this theory, and adds, "But in other mounds these indications did not occur."[4]

Such an explanation finds support in the vast number of these structures. In building, the aborigines naturally chose the sort of timber which was soft and light, consequently easy to cut and to handle, such as willow or cottonwood. This soon decays. But no matter what variety of wood was utilized, not many years would be required, under the conditions supposed, to weaken its fiber until it could no longer uphold the weight of earth on the roof, and a new house must be erected. Several such renewals would be needed in the course of a century; so that the ruins of an ordinary village might create the impression that a large settlement had existed on its site.

The explanation of "agricultural use" is probably correct in some instances, for frequently the mounds are made of earth gathered up around their base, and so not only would be of value in a wet season, but would afford a much greater depth of fertile soil for sustenance of plants. In some localities modern farmers find that on such mounds crops are much better than on the low s.p.a.ces between them. On the other hand, a majority of the small mounds in the lower counties of southeastern Missouri are composed either of the hard, reddish, sandy clay which forms the subsoil of the land above overflow; or of the tough, waxy, black "gumbo" of the swampy or flat lowlands. In either case they are almost invariably sterile, so that in a cultivated field the position of a mound is easily determined even from a considerable distance by the feebler growth on its surface. Moreover, in many places, hundreds of them occurring within an area of a few square miles are built on clay lowlands where crawfish abound, within a few rods of sandy, well-drained ridges whose soil is never muddy more than a few hours after the hardest rain, and produces as fine corn and wheat as can be raised in any part of the State.

In short, no matter what suggestion has been offered as to their purpose or uses, objections to it can be brought and sustained. It is not improbable that, in the end, it will be found the difficulty lies in trying to place in a hard and fast category a variety of structures which are similar in appearance but which were intended for various uses. With more comprehensive study, it may be that a cla.s.sification is possible which will interpret what is now obscure. Instead of uniformity, there was probably great diversity of motives, ideas, and beliefs which led to the building of these as well as of other mounds; and when the key is once obtained the explanation which will account for one may be very different from that which as clearly accounts for another.

A few of these mounds have been explored by the writer, but no discoveries were made upon which can be based a definite statement as to their probable purpose.

NEW MADRID COUNTY

On the farm of A.B. Hunter, 7 miles north of New Madrid, more than 60 of these mounds, irregularly placed, extend for half a mile along the west bank of St. John's Bayou, the extreme width of the group being about 200 yards. The largest mound, standing on the edge of the terrace, was 6 feet high and 75 feet across. On the original surface, over a small area at the central part, were decayed fragments of human bones; so this was probably erected as a tumulus. The others were much smaller; from a foot to 3 feet high, and 30 to 50 feet in diameter.

Six of these, varying in size from the largest to the smallest, were thoroughly excavated within the original margin and down to the undisturbed earth beneath them. No artificial object was found in any of them except here and there a fragment of pottery or a small amount of ashes or a piece of charcoal, not intentionally deposited but gathered up and carried in with the earth in the course of construction. There were no distinct fire-beds or ash piles at the bottom, or in any part of the mound; nor were there any holes in which posts may have stood.

ST. FRANcOIS COUNTY

Nearly 2 miles south of Farmington, on Quesnel's land, are about 30 very small, low mounds, none more than 18 inches high or 25 feet across. They are on the general level, some of them on a gentle slope, of the first upland above the St. Francois River and a mile from that stream at its nearest point.

Half a mile to the south of these is a group of similar mounds on the farm of Isaac Hopkins, on a gently sloping hillside, and from 30 to 40 feet above the level of the overflow bottom land. One of these has been gradually worn away by the encroachment of a gully until more than half of it has disappeared. While the curvature of its surface is very apparent, and the remnant of its margin sufficiently distinct to show its regularity of outline, careful inspection of the face formed by the erosion fails to reveal any trace of stratification, or line of demarcation between the bottom of the mound and the original surface.

There is precisely the same uniformity of change from the gra.s.s roots to the underlying gravelly soil that exists in the exposed bank at any point to either side of the mound. Mr. Hopkins, desirous of knowing what might be in the mound, or why it was built, has noted the appearance of the earth from the time the gully reached its margin. At no time has its appearance differed in the least from what it presents now.

On the river bottom portion of Mr. Hopkins's farm, and on the adjoining Goings and Townshend farms to the southward, are many mounds lying along both sides of the Belmont division of the Iron Mountain Railway. Fully 100 were observed within a distance of a mile; and they are said to continue both up and down the river. They are all above flood stage, except in time of extreme high water. They range from a foot to 3 feet high, and from 20 to 40 feet across; but some of them have been lowered and broadened by cultivation. They are of the same earth as the ground around them. Mr. Hopkins says crops are much better on the mounds than on the area between them. This is no doubt due to the greater amount of productive soil in the one case, and to the excess of moisture in the other; the railway embankment impeding drainage in the lower part. Oak trees 4 feet in diameter grew on the mounds before they were cleared off.

Two of these mounds were completely removed, down into the subsoil.

The first was 18 inches high and 35 by 40 feet across; the variation in breadth resulting from continual cultivation in one direction. It contained nothing whatever of artificial character, not even a sc.r.a.p of pottery. There were no post holes, no indications of a fire bed, no trace of a distinction between the mound and the soil below it. In fact, except for the greater thickness of the superficial dark earth there was no difference between the appearance of the face of the excavation and that of a hole dug at random in the field.

The second mound was somewhat larger than the first, being 2 feet high and 40 feet across, and at a little higher level toward the edge of the field. It was the largest which could be excavated of this group.

As in the first mound opened, there was no worked object, if a small flint flake be excepted; no ashes; no fire bed; no trace of demarcation between the mound and the original surface of the ground, though in each mound the excavation over the entire area was carried down into the gravelly, hard-packed subsoil. Its artificial origin is clearly proven, however, by four holes dug into the earth beneath it before its construction. Nine feet a little north of the center, which was a.s.sumed to be the highest point of the mound, was a hole (A) 12 by 14 inches and 14 inches deep, with a flat bottom, the sides as regular as could be expected in hard soil dug out in primitive manner. Nine feet west of the center was a hole (B) a foot across, 10 inches deep, with a solid though somewhat irregular bottom. Near the center was a conical hole (C) a foot deep and the same across the top. Four feet from it, west of north, was another (D) of about the same size and shape. The measures given are of course only approximate, as the sides of all the holes were somewhat uneven, but they are practically correct. The depth was measured from the top of the gravelly subsoil.

Fourteen feet east of south from the center was an irregular hole (E) about 2 feet deep to the bottom of the loose dirt in it. This had not been dug, but was due to the decay of a tree which grew here before the mound was made. At the top of the dirt filling this hole was a piece of decayed bark, apparently oak, which had grown in the air; and farther down fragments of root bark. Eight feet east of the center was a hole (F), similar to the last, 10 inches deep and averaging 2 feet across. This, also, resulted from the decay of a stump.

A plan of the holes is given in figure 37. The dotted lines are merely to show direction and distance.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 37.--Plan of House Mound in St. Francois County, Mo.]

This mound offers confirmation of the belief that such structures, or some of them at least, mark the sites of dwellings. With the two trees, E and F, the posts, A and B, would form the corners of an irregular quadrangle; the two posts, C and D, would support the inner ends of roof timbers. While no trace of posts or roof timbers remained, it is difficult to imagine for what other purpose these holes would be dug; and in this heavy, wet earth all traces of wood must in time disappear. Conversely, the total absence of a fireplace, potsherds or other remains, and of any sign of a floor, would serve to dispel the a.s.sumption that this spot was ever inhabited even for a short time. The evidence is as strong one way as it is the other.

In short, the limited observations above recorded leave the question of origin and purpose just where it was.

Some years ago one of the mounds at Ferguson, St. Louis County, was opened. No remains of any sort were discovered, according to the report of the excavators; but on the original surface, at the center of the mound, was a fire bed in and about which were ashes, charcoal, and fragments of rude pottery.

No excavations have ever been made in the mounds near Granite Mountain; but a tortuous little stream has undercut several of them, thus making vertical sections as in the case of the mound at Hunter's, near Farmington. In some mounds only a small portion near the margin has been removed; in others the erosion has progressed to such an extent that observations were possible at varying distances, to and beyond the center. In every instance a monotonous uniformity of appearance prevails from the top of the mound into the underlying gravel. At no level is there a sign of a floor, fire bed, or other evidence of human work; and no difference can be detected between the earth upon which the mound rests and that on either side. Yet the mounds are indubitably artificial.

Exactly the same remarks apply to several mounds on the County Farm, near Salem. A little creek and a drainage ditch have cut away varying portions of them, and they merge insensibly into the soil and gravel on either side.

In further support of the theory that these mounds are the remains of earth-covered houses, a few extracts relating to the area under discussion will be given from Dr. Cyrus Thomas in the Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology:

Near "Beckwith's Fort," in Mississippi County, Missouri, are (p.

189)--

Low, flattish, circular mounds * * * [which] appear to belong to two cla.s.ses, those used for dwelling sites and those used for burial purposes, the former being the higher and the color of the surface layer darker than that of the other cla.s.s. This darker color of the surface layer is probably due to the fact that immediately below it are found fire-beds with burnt earth, charcoal, ashes, and the bones of animals, (mostly split). There are seldom any human skeletons or entire vessels of pottery in the mounds of this cla.s.s though the earth is filled with fragments of broken vessels.

In describing mound excavations in Crittenden County, Arkansas, the explorer states (p. 227):

As an almost universal rule, after removing a foot or two of top soil, a layer of burnt clay in a broken or fragmentary condition would be found, sometimes with impressions of gra.s.s or twigs, which easily crumbled but was often hard and stamped apparently with an implement made of split reeds of comparatively large size. This layer was in places a foot thick and frequently burned to a brick red or even to clinkers.