American Indian Sacred Stones and Burial Mounds in Wabash County, Indiana

 AMERICAN INDIAN BURIAL MOUNDS AND FISH WEIRS, AND SACRED STONES IN WABASH COUNTY, INDIANA

Map showing the location of early Native American burial mounds and earthworks in Wabash County, Indiana.

Get the directions to all of these sites.  85 burial mounds and earthworks from the enigmatic mound builder culture, photographed and directions provided in Indiana. 222 burial mound and earthwork sites in Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Michigan.  America's best travel guide to the Indian mounds and earthworks in the Ohio Valley.

“Tales of the Old Days” by W.E. Billings

      At some point, about a half mile southwest of Round Lake, this trail was joined by another from the wets, and together they continued in a northeastern direction to the south edge of the tamarack swamp north of Laketon. Here the trail apparently swung west around the swamp and continued northeast along the ridge that can be seen about a half mile east of the Ogdon Road. Near the edge of the tamarack swamp, at 2668 feet north of the Eel River, there were two mounds visible. The near one, about 100 feet northwest of this point, was described as “five or six feet high, unfinished.” The upland in this area, north of Laketon, was described as “level 2nd rate”. The timber was white and black oak with undergrowth of sassafras and vines. This was the first mention of sassafras.

Ancient fish weir constructed by the mound builder culture to catch eels.  The date of construction could be as early as 1500 B.C. and as late as 1200 A.D.  Burial mounds that once existed near this site give the probability of an early origin of this Indiana treasure.

Geology and Natural Resources 17th Annual Report,1891

       A few small mounds are said to exist in the southern part of the county. One mile west of Roann near the north bank of the Eel River, on the farm at Mr. Silas E. Shoemaker, is an extensive burial place of the Miami Indians, and bones are frequently exposed in plowing the land. On the farm of Mr. R.G. Arnold in Pleasant Township, Section 12, TGP. 29, Range 5 East, there is a mound having an elevation of sixty feet above Silver Creek, which the Indians used as a burial place. The mound consists of gray gravel to the bed of the stream. Mr. Arnold says that in cultivating the burial place soon after it was cleared the plow turned out pipes, arrowheads, peelers, and parts of human bones, but they were carried away years ago by relic hunters.

NOTE: Nothing remains of this mound.

A series of  sacred stone bowls also existed on the Wabash and Mississenewa Rivers.  One bowl was described as being within the city of Wabash.  Another bowl can still be seen on the Wabash River.

Stone bowls were not fro function, but part of some kind of ceremony that was related to the Earth Mother.

Another stone bowl, where the sacred nature of this site is revealed because of the adjacent spring that flows in to the bowl. The proximity of burial mounds to the other sacred or spirit stones is evidence that all of these works were constructed by the mound building culture.

Close to the previous stone bowl is this stone enclosure that surrounds a 4 foot depression. Its construction is a mystery. 

Along the stone wall of the enclosure is a series of sacred stones, indicated by the white stone that has a bowl carved in the top.  There is no other site  like this, but the stone bowl indicates that it too, was constructed by the mound builders culture.

Prehistoric American Indian Mound Builders Ruins in Wayne County, Indiana

INDIANA HISTORY: EARLY NATIVE AMERICAN BURIAL MOUNDS AND EARTHWORKS IN WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA

Map showing the locations of burial mounds and earthworks in Wayne County, Indiana

GET MORE PHOTOS AND DIRECTIONS TO THE BURIAL MOUNDS AND EARTHWORKS IN WAYNE COUNTY, INDIANA. 85 BURIAL MOUNDS AND EARTHWORKS PHOTOGRAPHED IN INDIANA.  EXPLORE HISTORIC INDIANA. 222 BURIAL MOUNDS AND EARTHWORKS IN INDIANA, OHIO, WEST VIRGINIA, KENTUCKY AND MICHIGAN.

 AMERICA'S PREMIER TRAVEL GUIDE TO THE BURIAL MOUNDS IN THE OHIO VALLEY.

Eighth Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Indiana, 1876

      The high table-lands of this county, and its deep canon-like river valleys, afforded the Mound Builders favorable sites for their settlements, and we constant find the remains of a number of large and interesting earthworks and a great many mounds scattered along the bluffs of the streams. Prof. J.C. MacPherson, county superintendent of schools of Wayne County, has kindly furnished me with a sketch of these ancient works, and as he has given considerable attention to the study of archaeology, his report is a very valuable acquisition to our knowledge on this subject, and I take pleasure in presenting it to the public.

“Observations on the Prehistoric Earthworks of Wayne County, Indiana”

     The surface of Wayne County presents many evidences of occupancy by the Mound Builders. Mounds are found in all parts of the county-situated on the uplands and along the courses of the streams. The plowshare has leveled many, and some have been removed in opening roads to the material used in making brick. Twenty-five mounds have been located on a map of the county prepared in connection with the geological report.

The works in the county seem to be a continuation southward from the works along White River in Randolph County, and follow the branches of the White Water. Perhaps, when all the works located in this part of the Ohio Valley are mapped, some systematic arrangement may be discovered.

Three miles north from Fountain City (formerly called Newport), on a rise overlooking the wooded valley of Noland’s fork, is a mound seventy-five feet in diameter, (section 19, township 18, range 15 east).

A slight undulation in this field still marks the site of this burial mound.  

Another is on the farm of Daniel Hough, adjoining Fountain City. A third is said to have been removed in making the principal street of that town.

One mile northeast from Fountain City, on level ground, between Noland’s fork and a small tributary-Buck run-is an embankment enclosing eleven acres. The figure (Plate C) of this earthwork is a square with curved corners. The length on the inside of the embankment is 780 feet. The embankment has been plowed over for years, yet can be plainly traced. A gateway is discernible on the west side, and hollows are found in the vicinity, which some suppose were made by the builders when collecting material for the embankment. Since the accompanying map was made, a more careful survey has discovered the fact that the direction of the embankment is not due north and south, but at an angle, with the west side nearly parallel with the road.

Making the correction stated above about the position of the earthwork, if it was parallel to the road the gateway would be aligned to the summer solstice sunset and would again align to the west on the winter solstice sunrise.  

Undulations in this field are the only remnants of the once massive 50 feet wide earthen wall that enclosed this sacred temple.

A large mound stood two miles north from Chester (Section 4, Township 14, and Range 1 west). The greater part was removed in making the Arba road. A copper ring was found therein, and is now in the collection at Earlham College. (Judge N.R. Overman informs me that four copper bracelets were found. He has one in his cabinet. He also has three flint implements taken from this mound.)

Several mounds are situated in the neighborhood of Middleboro. Some have been opened, but no contents worthy of notice have been obtained.

One mile north from Richmond, on the Hoover farm, and in the vicinity, several small mounds were located. In one, when removed, was found a copper ornament.

   Map shows two burial mounds and a square enclosure within the city limits of Richmond

One of the burial mounds near the square enclosure is still visible in some dense thickets. The mound is unique in that a graded way leads to second terrace below.

A mound near Earlham College was opened by President Moore and the usual contents of mounds found-pieces of pottery, ashes, and other evidences of fire.

On the J.C. Ratliff farm a mound was opened, and some small articles, which were at first supposed to be beads, but are now thought to be parched corn, found therein. L.B. Case, of Richmond, has some grains of corn, which were found in a jar some distance below the surface of the ground, in the vicinity of that place.

A large mound south from the town of Centreville was deemed of sufficient note to be marked upon an early map of the State, but has since been destroyed.

In the southwestern part of Boston Township is a mound hidden away in a “hollow”; and one formerly stood south from Richmond near the Boston pike.

Small burial mound located in a holler next to a small creek.  Small burial mounds like this that are tucked away far from the road are in the greatest danger of being destroyed by University archaeologists. 

Traces of a mound are to be seen on the farm of James W. Martindale, adjoining Washington. This mound was opened in early times, and charcoal found near the original surface of the ground. A great quantity of arrowheads have been found around a spring (long since dry) near this mound.

A circular embankment was found near Green’s fork, east from Jacksonburg, twenty-five feet in diameter. It was long since plowed down.

Two mounds are to be seen a short distance northwest from Jacksonburg.

Overlooking Martindale’s creek in Jefferson Township (section 18, township 17 north, range 13 east,) is a mound. Also two in the bottom land along West River, at Hagerstown.

Two miles southeast from Milton (section 6, township 15, range 13 east,) is a beautiful mound, fifteen feet in diameter. Forest trees are still standing upon it; also a stump measuring two feet across.

Headwaters to creeks were Sacred Grounds to the early mound builders.  Other sacred grounds were drainage divides.  It worth noting here that while the creeks to the west of the mound are flowing south, this creek at the mound is flowing north.

The burial mound is still visible in this field. It is now under cultivation.  preservation of Indiana's antiquities must start on a local level, since it is the mission of the Indiana Historical Society to destroy all of Indiana's burial mounds.  

Near the county line, about one-mile north of Waterloo, Fayette County, is a mound upon high ground, and about a mile to the southeast, in Fayette County, is a curiously shaped.

This mound is visible across the road from the mound in the holler.  According to the kland owner it was much more conical years ago before being plowed.

The most notable mounds (Plates A and B) in Wayne County are located on the left bank of the west branch of the White Water River, one and a quarter miles north from Cambridge City. They consist of a series of circular embankments, continued over half a mile of ground.

Earthwork cox near Cambridge City, Indiana

The south circle (Plate A) is in the best state of preservation. The embankment was made of the earth taken from the trench, which is on the inside of the embankment. Within, the ground has been made to slope gently from the center to the bottom of the trench, except to the east, where there was left a roadway leading from the center through a gateway in the embankment to the level ground beyond. The embankment is four feet above the surface of the field, and seven feet above the bottom of the trench, and wide enough on the top to allow two carriages to pass each other. The gateway is one rod wide. This circle is made of gravelly soil, while the north circle is composed of a loam, and has yielded more to the destroying influence of plowing.  It is not as symmetrical as the other, being more oval in outline.

Two large henges of the Cambridge City earthwork complex.  The north henge is aligned to the summer solstice sunrise, and would align again on the winter solstice sunset.

Henge complexes at Mounds State Park in Anderson, New Castle Indiana, and Athens, Ohio all contained 8 works in the group. From the previous map the Indiana Geological Survey placed 7 north alonong the river and the two main henges.  In this aerial photo the 8th earthwork is revealed next to the southern henges northwest side.  A silar, samller circle also occurs at Mounds State Park in Anderson, Inidana.

Despite being plowed for years the central platform and exterior ditches are still visible of the southern henge. The gateway also still visible and marking the yearly equinoxes as it has done for the last 2000 years.

The class of works to which these belong is described in “Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley,” page 47, and are denominated “Sacred Enclosures.”

These two circles on Plate A, are about fifteen rods apart, and about the same distance from the bluff of the stream. In the bluff, equally distant from both the circles, is a passageway cut from the top of the bluff to low ground bordering the water, some twelve feet below. This cut is evidently not a water-wash, for along the sides can be seen the earth which was removed in making it thrown up as dirt is thrown up along the sides of a ditch.

This "cut" is still visible between the two henges that leads on a gradual descent to a small creek that runs to the west of the earthworks.  It is evidence of an important concept at most earthworks sites that will have elements of both the Sky Father (sun) and the Earth Mother (creek)

The bluff here spoken of is the edge of the first terrace. The rounded margin of the second terrace can be seen a quarter of a mile to the east.

Several hundred feet north from the second of the above-described circles is a group of five small circles (Plate B). With one exception these are about sixty feet in diameter, and are now from one to two feet high. The circle numbered 3, on Plate B, is at the point of a tongue of higher ground, and affords an outlook over the other works.  The embankment of the largest work in this group (numbered 7) can not be traced on the south, that part being in a field which has long been cultivated. Trees of large size were, until recently, standing upon the embankments of these works.

Burial places and remains have been found in various localities within the county. A number of years ago, in removing the gravel from a bank in the northwest part of Jefferson Township, nine feet below the surface, eight skeletons were discovered. They had been buried in an upright position. These bones were gathered together by the workmen and reburied in a common grave. In constructing the Valley Railroad from Hagerstown to Cambridge City, human remains were exhumed; also some at the latter place.

O. Beeson communicated to the local papers some twelve years ago an account of the discovery of a burial place in the extreme southwest corner of the county. Many skeletons were found in a gravel bank, some having been placed in a sitting posture and some with the head downward.

Recently some twenty or more skeletons were unearthed in a gravel pit on George Jordan’s farm, about two miles northwest from Economy. These bodies seem to have been buried in graves a few feet apart, and six feet below the surface. Some of them were in a sitting position, while others were in various positions.

The discovery of a human skeleton in a mound on the bank of White Water, near Richmond, many years ago, was the occasion for the following lines from the pen of the late John Finley; author of the “Hoosier’s Nest,” and other poems, and once Mayor of Richmond.

“Year after year its course has sped,

Age after age has passed away,

And generations born and dead,

Have mingled with their kindred clay,

Since this rude pile, to memory dear,

Was watered by affection’s tear.

* * * * * * * * * *

“No legend tells thy hidden tale,

Thou relic of a race unknown!

Oblivion’s deepest, darkest veil

Around thy history is thrown;

Fate, with arbitrary hand,

Inscribed thy story on the sand.”

Stone and flint implements were formerly found in great numbers in this region. Wayne County, like the rest of our State, has suffered in being robbed by collectors and traffickers, who have carried away many specimens to grace the museums of other states. But recently more interest has been manifested in the subject of archaeology, and the collection at Earlham College, and several private collections, are beginning to assume interesting proportions.

“Setzler’s Survey”, Indiana Historical Society

The Indiana Historical Society is in leauge with the university archaeologists and the DNR to destroy every mound in Indiana. Despite a historical legacy than spans thousands of years the Indiana Historical Society has not saved, preserved or even noted any of these antiquities as historic sites. They have given millions of dollars to universities to desecrate burial mounds across the State.

The following list is a good example of the mindless destruction done to Indiana's antiquities by the Indiana Historical Society.

These are mounds in his report in addition to mounds reported by McPherson.

1.) Schroeder Mound. On the east bank of the Green Fork. Diameter of mound twelve feet, six inches. Located in the southeast one quarter of Section 21, Green Township.

Very litle remains of the Schroeder mound after Setzler and the Indiana Historical Society were done with it.

*If mound found in frac.-Section 19 of New Garden Township, mound was originally forty feet in diameter and three feet high.

2.) Teetor Mound. Located one mile east of Hagerstown on Highway 38. Originally the mound was 43 feet in diameter and eight feet high.  Southeast quarter of Section 23, Jefferson Township.

3.) Wolford Mound. Measured 45” in diameter and five and half feet high. One quarter mild northeast of the circular earthwork. Mound’s location was the northeast one quarter of Section 15, Jefferson Township.

4.) This mound was used by surveyors as a base for survey measurements. It was described as being 45 feet in diameter and nine feet high. Located in the northwest one quarter of Section 5, Jackson Township.

5.) Secrist Mound. Was located in a woods, one half mile southeast of Jacksonburgh. Mound was originally 42 feet in diameter and eight feet high. Located in the southwest one-quarter of Section 8, Harrison Township.

6.) Davis Mound. Near the edge of the east bank of the Green Fork stood a mound 43 feet in diameter and 5 feet high. Located in the northeast one quarter of Section 16, Harrison Township.

7.) No physical descriptions exist of two mounds located in the northeast one quarter of Section 6 and the northwest one quarter of Section 5, Harrison Township.

8.) In the northeast one quarter of Section 6 and the northwest one quarter of Section5, Harrison Township.

9.) Hodgins Mound. Original dimensions were thirty-nine feet north and south, forty-eight feet east and west and was three to four feet in height. Located in the southeast one quarter of Section 21, Wayne Township.

  Burial mound is still visible on a table of high ground that descends into an aquifer.

10.) Richmond City Waterworks. Mound originally was thirty-five feet in diameter and nearly six feet high. Located in the northeast one quarter of Section 34, Wayne Township.

AAfter an hour of clearing brush from the mound we were able to photograph the Waterworks mound.  It would be visible from the road if it were cleared.

11.) Mound once stood roughly 11,000 feet from the west bank of the East Fork of the Whitewater River in the northwest one quarter of Section 8, Wayne Township.

12.) One mile south of the City of Milton was a mound forty-nine feet in diameter and five feet high in the northwest one quarter of Section 11, Washington Township.

13.) A small mound was located in the northwest one quarter of Section 12, Washington Township.

14.) Doddridge Mound. Located on a sharp bend of Noland’s fork. Originally the mound was thirty-eight feet in diameter and three feet high in the southwest one quarter of Section 16, Washington Township.

15.) Robbins Mound. Mound used to be visible from the road that divides Section 17. Its size was forty-five feet east, west, and 35 feet north-south with a height of four feet. Location was the northwest one quarter of Section 17, Abington Township

Hopewell Sioux and Iroquois Mound Builders in Henry County, Indiana

HOPEWELL SIOUX AND IROQUOIS MOUND BUILDERS IN HENRY COUNTY, INDIANA

Historic Henry County,  map showing locations of burial mounds and earthworks in Henry County, Indiana with the exception that the small henge at the High School, on New Castle's south side, is not marked.  The red stick figures represent locations where giant human skeletons were reported.

   States that a five acre mound exists a few miles north of Kennert. In this mound were found giant skeletons with ivory beads.

     Letter to Frank Setzler, dated September 18, 1929 on file at the Indiana Historical Bureau, County Archaeological files, Indianapolis. Letter states a burial mound was excavated northeast of Shirley, in Henry County.

   There are 85 more mound and earthwork sites in Indiana. Many are some of Indiana's best tourists destinations. Get more histories, photos and directions to Indiana's ancient past with 'The Nephilim Chronicles: A Travel Guide to the Ancient Ruins in the Ohio Valley."  222 Burial mound and earthworks sites in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky and Michigan. 






   Henry County; Past and Present: “A Brief History of the County from 1821 to 1871” by Elwood Pleas. 1871

Mounds, Earthworks, Etc.

       There are in the county many evidences of its having been the home of one or more races of people, now passes away. Numerous mounds and earthworks or fortifications are found in the county while flint, arrow and spear heads are found in almost every neighborhood, and it might be said on almost every farm in the county. Stone pestels, hammers, tomahawks or hatchets, and other implements and trinkets are found in portions of the county. Whether these belonged to the race of “red men” that immediately preceded the whites, or to a people they had displaced is perhaps an open question. It is into this part of the State, knew as little about the manufacture of these arrowheads and stone hatchets as we do today, and yet these very weapons have been the only implements used by their ancestors of two hundred years before. It would not have taken he of the “untutored mind” long to discover the superior murderous quality of a steel hatchet over the blunt implement of his sires, and of course, as the stone implement was superceded the art of manufacture was lost, and even a well defined tradition of its use soon passed away with people unused to letters.

This map is a revision from Eli Lillies orignal that puts the largest henge across the drive  that leads up to the site. The mounds and earthworks north of the drive are in an east west alignment and mark the yearly Equinox sunrise and sunset, along with the gateway of the largest henge.

     The most notable earthworks of the county are perhaps those on the “Hudelson place,” formerly the “Allen Shepherd farm.” Here are fortifications which have defied the ravages of the “tooth of time” for aught we know for a century, and the plowman’s share for half that time, and yet, in some instances from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the embankment is still four to six feet, though generally much less.  Several of them enclose near a half acre, and generally there is in the center a mound which was probably at one time much higher than the surrounding embankment and served as a sort of observatory and as well perhaps as a resting place for the dead. 

The significance of these measurements are the frequency in which they occur. The largest henge is 250 feet in diameter that shows up in many of the henges in the Ohio Valley, and especially around Chillicothe, Ohio. Gateways of 250 foot henges are generally aligned (as is this one) to the equinox.

This a map of just a few of the henges around Chillicothe, Ohio that were also 250 feet in diameter.

I discovered one of the 250 foot henges above Water Street in this lawn.  Henges that were 250 feet in diameter had smaller outer wall and ditches that surrounded the central platform.  

   There are one or more mounds without the surrounding ditch and embankments. One of the most noticeable is about two rods across at the base and near five feet in height although some body-snatcher has been thrusting his sacrilegious spade into it, with what result we know not. Like the famous general who “fit” in the Mexican war, these aboriginal engineers seemed to prefer having the ditch on the inside of the embankment, which probably served as a fence for the retention of stock as well as for defense from without. Some of the enclosures appear to have been circular, others quadrangular, one octagonal and some of irregular outline, though from the partial obliteration of the walls the exact state is not easily determined. Some of the walls were probably eight or more feet in h eight in early times and it is reported that some of them were surmounted with the remains of a stockade much less than fifty years ago.

A small section of the largest 250 foot henge can be seen on the north side of the drive leading up to the site.

Most of the largest mound with a fiddle back ditch and earthwork surrounding it  has been destroyed by Ball State archaeologists.  It measured 215 feet, which is significant because the fiddle shaped earthwork at Mounds State Park in Anderson, Indiana is also 215 feet, as is the large mound surrounded by an earthwork Marietta, Ohio.

   Even more astounding, without getting to deep in to the numerology and sacred measurements of the Adena Hopewell is that 215 was also used to make some of the largest earthworks in the Ohio Valley.

There were six of these earthworks constructed around Chillicothe, Ohio that consisted of a square 1080 feet per side (see Randolph county for their earthwork measuring 1080), a circle 800 feet in diameter and the large circle that was 1720 feet in diameter or 215 X 8 =1720!

This is part of the outer wall of one of the henges that are in the woods, south of the drive.

This is a photo of the equinox sunset looking from the fidleback mound west towards the henge and mound to the west, where they are in perfect alignment.  The sun falls in to visible notch in the distant hill.

This what the fiddleback mound looked just a few years ago, its outer earthwork with interior ditch visible in the photo.  It marked the equinox sunrise and sunset for 2000 years before being nearly destroyed by Ball State archaeologist. 

This is a photo of Ball State archaeologist destroying one of Indiana's and America's finest antiquities. Dark spots near the bottom are from cremations.  The Ball State archaeologist is shoveling the cremated remains of the Hopewell Sioux in to a wheel barrow where they will be taken to a sifter in search of artifacts. No effort was made by Ball State archaeologists to restore the mound and they make frequent trips to New Castle, slowly eradicating this historical treasure.  Oh yes, what did the archaeologist find? A piece of pottery with a zig opposed to a zag, and he declared it "The New Castle Phase." Somehow implying that is different than Mounds State Park,  You saw measurements, and so you know more than this clown, and didn't have to destroy anything.

      

     One of these old forts is on the premises and nearly in front of the residence of Mr. Joseph Dorrah, about one and a half miles north of New Castle, the New Castle and Northern Pike cutting it in two. There are two stumps in it, the remains of trees, probably more than one hundred and fifth years old. There are also similar relics in other portions of the county, all speaking to us of the trials, hardships and struggles of a race whose extinction seems near at hand. The hand of the “pale face” seems ever against them, even the sacred precincts of their burial grounds are invaded and their bones are not suffered to rest in peace.

     In constructing railroads and turnpikes their crumbling skeletons have been exhumed by scores and scattered to the four winds.

Historic Henry County, 1820-1849,Vol I. 

     Another Adena enclosure still remains in the city of New Castle. This is found at the west edge of Baker Park on S. Main St., immediately east of the Chrysler High School. Although its original use is problematical it is generally considered this type of enclosure was of ceremonial usage. It is an excellent example of the work of the Adena Culture although not as large as similar mounds found in the Mounds State Pak in Anderson. New Castle and Henry County residents will do well to see that these works of the earliest residents are preserved for future generations.

SSmall henge, similar to the henges in the woods and between the two burial mounds.  It ia aligned to the winter solstice sunrise.(?)

Indiana Geological Survey 1862:

      About seven or eight miles west of new Castle; a number of Indian skeletons were disinterred in constructing a turnpike; and about the same distance south of town some remarkable human bones and skeletons of giant size were dug out, with other relics, during the making of the road.

Artisans and Artifacts of Vanished Races, Theophilus Dickerson, 1915

PECULIAR GRAVEL MOUND IN HENRY COUNTY, INDIANA

This Isolated Monument of Nature at an Early Period Surrounded by Water-Two Roadways.

HUMAN SKELETON EIGHT FEET IN HEIGHT UNEARTHED TWELVE FEET BENEATH SURFACE-EIGHTY FOUR IVORY BEADS FOUND IN IVORY SAUCER ON THE BREAST OF GIANT.

A few miles north of Kennerd, in Henry county, Indiana, is a remarkable mound that covers an area of five acres.

Unlike other mounds found in Indiana and other states, it is composed primarily of sand and gravel and covered by a forest of native trees of a century’s growth.

There is not another deposit of sand or gravel in six or eight miles. The surrounding country is plain.

This pile of sand and gravel, as stated in above, covers an area of five acres and is of cone shape. When first known by white men it had a well defined ditch around it, and two made roadways, wide enough for a wagon, one from the north and the other from the south.

Farmers and road builders that needed gravel and sand found these glacial screenings to come handy in the building of public highways and for a small price per cubic yard paid to the owner of land found it more convenient than going to Springport or Mount Summit, a distance of eight miles.

After opening this deposit to a depth of 12 feet from the top of mound they unearthed a human skeleton whose framework measured nearly eight feet in height.

His skull would fit over the head of a large man; his jaws being massive and teeth in a perfect state of preservation.

On the breast of this big chief was a saucer-shaped vessel of ivory, about six inches in diameter, containing 84 ivory beads, that must have been made from the tusk of a mastodon.

We tried the persuasion of money on the old farmer in order to secure the ivory specimens, but he was invincible. We had no desire to become the possessor of human bones.