Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Anthropology/Antiquities of Mills County, Iowa
ANTIQUITIES OF MILLS COUNTY, IOWA.
By Seth Dean, of Glenwood, Iowa.
Mills County is located on the extreme western boundary of Iowa, and is the second county from the southern boundary. Immediately prior to its settlement by the whites it was the home of the Pottawatomie Indians, numerous traces of whom may still be seen, but the two places to which this article refers seem to have an earlier date. The sketch marked No. 1 is a point in the southeast corner of the southwest quarter section 8, township 73 north, range 43 west of the fifth principal meridian, and on the lands now owned and cultivated by Mr. O. E. Allis. Topographically considered it is located on a spur of the bluffs
Sketch No 1.
which form the eastern boundary of the great Missouri flood plain, and is perhaps 50 feet above the level of the plain. The remains at present consist of a number of circular depressions on the southwestern slope, but near the summit of the aforesaid point of bluff. To the south about 400 feet there is at present a deep ravine, from which flows an excellent spring of water, while east and north the range of bluffs rise to a height of 250 feet above the plain. The depressions are from 20 to 30 feet in diameter, of circular form, and at present are from 1 ½ to 2 feet deep, but as the ground has been in cultivation for a number of years, it is probable that they have been filled up considerably.
The ground on the site and for some distance around these hollows is strewn with small chips of stone and fragments of pottery, together with occasional tools of various kinds, such as arrow-heads, knives, &c. Also a number of pieces of different-colored paints and occasional ornaments have been found. The inhabitants seem to have understood the manufacture of pottery to some extent, as numerous fragments show. The clay for tins they obtained in the bank near at hand. This was probably mixed with the lime of powdered clam-shells, and then molded
Sketch No. 2.
into shape, and probably the larger vessels were supported by wicker-work made from small twigs, as there are numerous specimens which seem to show such an arrangement, although no perfect vessels have been found here, nor is it certain whether the vessels were baked in the fire or not.
The writer thinks the inhabitants lived mostly upon the products from the water, as the shells of the fresh-water clam are numerous, and were obtained from the Missouri River, which at that time probably flowed along the foot of the bluff, at their very door.
The stone for their implements seems to have been obtained in part from some ledges near here, and perhaps some of it from a distance, as the finer and more perfect of their tools were made from a kind not found here, except in the form of pebbles or drift bowlders, all the native stone being a carboniferous limestone, with the exception of a very coarse flint which is met with in some localities, and which was used for the larger tools, but which apparently was not suitable for smaller implements. Chalcedony seems to have been used by them to some extent, as were other kinds of stone of which the writer does not know the name. Some of these tools show superior skill, and have been apparently first chipped into shape and then ground to a perfectly smooth surface. This is the case with some hatchets which have been found, also of a globular stone which the writer has in his collection, and which was probably used as a sling shot or for a similar purpose.
Sketch No. 2 shows the location of a peculiar mound, which is situated on the summit of one of the highest of the range of bluffs which borders the Missouri River flood plain. It is near the northwest corner of the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter section 10, township 72 north, range 43 west of the fifth principal meridian, and is about 5½ miles south and 2 miles east from No. 1.
This bluff is nearly 300 feet above the lowlands, and overlooks the country for many miles in every direction. The mound in question was formed of the soil adjacent, and is at the present time about 8 feet in height above the original surface. The base of the mound is elliptical in form, being about 70 feet north and south, and 40 feet east and west. The earth from which this mound was made was apparently taken from a place 125 feet south, where a large depression exists, about 35 feet square, and at present 5 feet deep. There is the stump of a burr-oak tree 16 inches in diameter standing near the northwest corner of the pit, on the edge of the slope of the bank; also another burr-oak stump 14 inches in diameter near the southeast corner, which is also on the bank, but at the edge of the excavation. This mound was partially opened some twenty-five years ago, but without yielding anything of consequence. My note-book shows the following entry: "Opened mound with S. B. Proudfit, November 25, 1879, and dug a hole 6 feet long and 4 feet wide. At 7 feet from the surface came to a layer of ashes about one-half an inch thick, and below this a layer of stones. These stones were from 2 to 11 inches thick and would probably weigh from 20 to 30 pounds. They were evidently placed on what was the original surface of the ground, and the ashes and earth placed above them. The stones were probably brought from the Nebraska side of the Missouri River. About 4 miles directly west the characteristic fossils in the stones indicate this. There did not seem to have been any action of fire on the stones, so far as we could discover, neither were there any bones or implements found in the mound, although we dug down 3 feet below the layer of stone. There were a few chips of flint found on the ground around the base of the mound, and a large stone implement which the writer thinks may have been used for a hoe, but belonged to a later tribe than the one which built the mound." (See Fig. 1.) Two cemeteries are also found in the county, but no examination has as yet been made.