Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Anthropology/Mounds Near Edwardsville, Wyandotte County, Kansas
MOUNDS NEAR EDWARDSVILLE, WYANDOTTE COUNTY, KANSAS.
By E. F. Serviss, of Wyandotte City, Kansas.
On the farm of William Kouns, of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, near Edwardsville, Wyandotte County, Kansas, 14 miles west of this city, there are four mounds that have never been explored. They are situated on the third terrace of the valley of the Kansas River, about one-half mile from it, near a small creek. There is a very large spring about 200 yards northeast, and a smaller one about 300 yards northwest. On approaching the mounds from the east we find them extending in a straight line in a due westerly direction. They are about 6 feet in height, 25 feet in diameter, about 50 feet from each other at the base, and of uniform size. They have been somewhat injured by cultivation, the ground having been plowed twice. The soil is a black loam. Before the clearing of the land the mounds were covered with a heavy growth of timber, principally oak, and the stumps now remaining would indicate great age, averaging from 3 to 4 feet in diameter. A large number of axes, celts, arrow-heads, and other implements have been found in the immediate vicinity of the mounds.
About two years ago I discovered on the farm of J. L. Stockton, 1 mile northwest of this city, remains of an aboriginal workshop or village. It is located on a small stream, called Jersey Creek, and near a large spring. It covers an area of about 2 acres. The soil is sandy, and to the depth of 2 feet is a complete mixture of flakes of flint, ashes, bones (both animal and human), fragments of ornamented pottery, broken and unfinished stone implements of nearly every description. The fragments of pottery are the most numerous; there are three kinds as to color; viz, black, brown, and red, composed of a mixture of clay, sand, and pounded shells. The variety of the combinations of lines and dots is inexhaustible. I have never found two pieces alike. Judging from the degrees of curvature of the fragments, the original vessels were mostly globular, and would hold from one-half pint to one quart. I found a very small vessel, containing powdered bone or lime; it was globular in shape, would hold about one gill, and was profusely ornamented. There are no deposits of flint and other stone valuable for arrow-making, &c., in this vicinity. The axes, celts, skin-dressers, and balls are all made of porphyry, and the arrow-heads of flint.