MOUNDS IN MISSOURI submitted by: Mary Hudson (mahud@fidnet.com) 16:21 9/6/00 ______________________________________________________________________________ These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. __________________________________________________________________________________ Text taken from: "A HISTORY OF MISSOURI" FROM THE EARLIEST EXPLORATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS UNTIL THE ADMISSION OF THE STATE INTO THE UNION. By LOUIS HOUCK Printed 1908 Louis Houck references the following material from Bancroft's Native Races of America, vol.iv p. 781. No doubt a large population at some prehistoric period dwelt in what is not Missouri, and especially in eastern and southeastern Missouri. IT is the opinion of Brackenridge that "an immense population" was once supported by this country. Indeed, it would appear from the vestiges yet remaining of these prehistoric people that during the era of their occupancy of the land the population of the country was greater, at least in those localities of the state where the mounds are most numerous, that even now. It is impossible to estimate the number of these prehistoric people. Large as the number may appear, I am certain that the 28,000 mounds which have been discovered within the limits of the state, mostly in the eastern portion, only indicate approximately the prehistoric population. As a deeper interest in Missouri archaeology grows up among all classes of the people we may expect many additional discoveries. Even Now fragments of potter, agricultural implements of stone, village sites and prehistoric habitations are uncovered at most unexpected places. How much more by close observation will yet be revealed it is impossible to tell. All the evidence tends to show that these do-called mound-builders were a homogeneous race and agricultural people; nothing indicates that they were either ferocious or warlike; no weapons what-ever have been found in their burial mounds. But spear, arrow, and lance heads are found in every variety on and near other mounds, and also in greater abundance apparently near points where probably shops or factories existed and where such arrow, or lance heads were made. As already stated, clay pottery sling -balls or bullets were unearthed several feet below the surface near some mounds. That these mound-builders were sedentary, semi-civilized people ins certain. The immense works which still attract our attention were not built by a migratory people, but "by a race that lived long in the land," and Bancroft thinks that some of the works "could not have been accomplished in less than four or five centuries," of course taking into account their methods and facilities. This also has been noted, that the mound-builders always had their settlements on good and fertile soil. Brackenridge, in 1810, noticed that the prehistoric mounds "invariably occupy the most eligible situations for towns and settlements," that there is "not a rising town or a farm of an eligible situation in whose vicinity some of them may not be found," and further says that" a surveyor of public lands" told him "wherever any of these remains were met with he was sure to find an extensive body of fertile soil." This observation has been found to be generally correct.