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Read Ebook: Paths of the Mound-Building Indians and Great Game Animals by Hulbert Archer Butler
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Ebook has 205 lines and 17501 words, and 5 pages
"... A group ... located 2 miles southwest of the village of Brownsville and half a mile south of the National Road, on a high hill, from which the surrounding country is in view for several miles."
"Inclosures, hut-rings, and mounds on a sandy ridge between the Mississippi River and Old Town Lake at the point where they make their nearest approach to each other, and near the ancient outlet of Old Town Lake" .
"... Remains of an Indian fort on the summit of a precipitous ridge near Lake Simcoe."
"Stone cairn ... on ridge between Anawaka and Sweetwater creeks" .
"Stone cairn on a ridge" .
"Stone mound on a ridge" .
"Deposit ... on a ridge half a mile south of Clear Creek" .
"Mounds on the spur of a ridge, midway between the Welsh group and Chambersburg, in the extreme northeastern part of the county" .
"Group of mounds on a ridge in Skillet Fork bottom" .
"Mounds on several high hills" .
"Four mounds on top of a ridge near Sparksville" .
"Stone enclosure known as Fort Ridge" .
"Indian mounds ... on 'Indian Hill'" .
"A group of circular mounds scattered along a ridge between Fox river and Sugar Creek" .
"Two parallel embankments stretching across a hog-back between two ravines" .
"Embankments on Ridge road ... along the edge of the bluff overlooking the Ridge road" .
"Cairns on ridges" .
"Stone cairns ... on trail crossing ridge between Tuckasegee river and Alarka Creek" .
Flint Ridge in Coshocton and Licking counties, Ohio, contained stone and earth mounds and quarries; "Indian trail from Grave Creek mound, West Virginia, to the lakes, passing over Flint Ridge."
Some of these remains are undoubtedly of no later age than the Indians whom the first whites knew; many of them are of far earlier times. It is now held by the most prominent archaeologists that there are works of the mound-building Indians which do not date back far from the time Columbus discovered America. Thus any work which gives evidence of having been in existence five hundred years may belong to the mound-building era. And throughout all these five hundred years there is hardly a time when there is not evidence of Indian occupation. So the line between the mound-building Indians and the later Indians, among whom the building of mounds was a lost art, is exceedingly hard to draw.
These quotations give some evidence that the builders of our earliest archaeological works were well acquainted with the high grounds. It is not apparent now that in any signal instance there exists evidence of a reliable character that any watershed was a highway; all we are seeking to show now is the very general fact that these people lived and moved and had their being often far inland on the heads of the little streams which never in historic times have served the purpose of navigation, and that here many of their works are found on the high grounds where it is sure all previous races have made their roads.
"Stone cairns in Rabun Gap" .
"Pictographs on large bowlders in Track Rock Gap" .
"Ancient fire-bed and refuse heap at Buffalo Gap " .
"Mound near Cumberland Gap" .
"Cairn at Indian Grave Gap on Green Mountain ... in the trail" .
"Mound ... said to be ... toward Grandmother Gap" .
"Mound ... one mile southwest of Paint Gap post-office.... Cairn at Indian Grave Gap, in Walnut Mountain ... on south side of road from Marshall to Burnsville" .
"Cairn at Boone's Gap on Boone's Fork of Warriors Creek" .
"Cairns at Indian Grave Gap" .
"Cairns in the gap on the state line at Slick Rock trail" .
"Mound 500 feet long, 250 feet wide, and 40 feet high ... 2-1/4 miles west of Rockfish Gap Tunnel" .
Some of these cairns do not, in all probability, date back to the mound-building era, but the mounds and other archaeological works probably do, giving the best reasons for believing that the earliest of Americans found the strategic paths of least resistance across our great divides.
But not only in the mountain passes have our tripods placed their stern stamp of approval upon the ingenuity of the earliest pathfinders of America. In a host of instances our highways and railroads follow for many miles the general line of the routes of the buffalo and Indian on the high ground. This is particularly true of our roads of secondary importance, county roads, which in hundreds of instances follow the alignment of a pioneer road which was laid out on an Indian trail.
No one can examine the maps and diagrams of the archaeological works of central North America with this truth in mind without noticing how largely these works are found near to some present-day thoroughfare. This is of significance. While it is true that works near such highways are perhaps more quickly discovered and easily approached, it is at the same time doubtful if any of importance have been ignored because they are at a distance from highways of approach. The relation of these works to neighboring roads has also been accidentally emphasized by the necessity of describing their position, which is often most easily done by a reference to adjacent roads. For all this due allowance must be made. At the same time this does not explain the fact that a significant fraction of these works lie along the general alignment of our present routes of travel and are in numerous instances touched by them. It need hardly be added that these roads were laid out with as much reference to the stars above them as to the ancient works near which they accidentally pass.
The following instances have a bearing on the question:
Two miles from Madison, Wisconsin, a line of mounds is found beside a highway to the city. The road passes through one of the group and the remainder follow the road on high ground almost parallel with it.
The road from Prairie du Chien to Eastman is paralleled by a long line of works. As previously noted this road follows the alignment of an old Indian trail.
There are mounds on both sides of the Black River road near Hazen Corners, Wisconsin.
In the archaeological map of Hazen Corners, Wisconsin, the works bear a significant relation to the junction of the three roads which meet there. Supposing the roads to be the prehistoric route of travel, it is seen that all the mounds lie just beside them, many even touching them, but in only one instance does a mound cross any of the three present roads. True, the roads may have destroyed some of the works, but of the effigy mounds, at least, it is sure that the figures are complete, or nearly so.
It is to be noticed with reference to the effigy mounds that, to a person standing on the present highway the figures are "right side up." In the case of the animal figures, if the road runs to the left of a figure that figure is found to be lying on its right side; if the road runs on the right the figure is found to be lying on its left side; the feet are toward the road. In the case of birds, either the head or the tail is toward the present highway.
A line of mounds lies on high ground on the northeast bank of the Mississippi river, near Battle Island, Vernon county, Wisconsin. The road to De Soto is on the same bank and lies parallel with them throughout their length.
A remarkable line of mounds and effigies lies near Cassville, Grant county, Wisconsin. A road runs exactly parallel with them. The mounds lie on the west and the effigies on the east. The animals lie in a correct position to be viewed from the road.
Between the Round Pond mounds , which are so near together that "one appears partially to overlap the other," runs a roadway.
A roadway cuts through the ancient works on the Boulware place, Clark county, Missouri; the alignment of the road and the series of works is nearly the same.
The Rich Woods works, Stoddard county, Missouri, lie on a long, sandy ridge; "the general course is almost directly north and south." The road to Dexter runs near them, touching one, in the same north and south direction the entire length.
The Knapp mounds, Pulaski county, Arkansas, "the most interesting group in the state," are surrounded by a wall of earth. A roadway passes through the entire semicircle formed by this surrounding wall, and passes between or at the base of the mounds contained within it.
A road runs through the entire length of the ancient stone work near Bourneville, Ross county, Ohio.
A state road crosses over Fort Ancient. At the spot where this road ascends to the fort, the embankments of the latter are found to be increased in height and solidity, showing that this point was most easy of ascent--probably the very spot where the ancient road was made.
A road passes through the entire length of the North Fork works .
A road passes through the entire length of ancient work, Ross county, Ohio.
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