Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/58

30 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY have been the most favored of valleys as a route of travel, but Red Wing and vicinity for permanent villages. "In the absence of any better explanation, we may tentatively accept the hypothesis that these mounds belong to the province of archeology, and that the larger valleys and their water courses have played a large role in the distribution of the mounds. The distribution of the mounds along these water courses is such that the law of arrangement governing them is in perfect harmony with the law governing the general arrangement of mounds along waterways in other parts of the county, where we know that Indians lived and built mounds. "'If these deductions are true, then the seemingly unsolved problem of this singular type of mound finds its solution in the conclusion that these mounds are the products of human activity in prehistoric times. Thus they will form another link in Min- nesota archaeology that will undoubtedly reward further study and possibly help to lift the veil that hangs over the past history of our state's aboriginal inhabitants and their mode of life. It unexpectedly shows that Indians built mounds in low lands as well as on higher lands. 'But if it should ever be shown that these mounds are not the toiuhs or camping places of a departed race, then they ought to be accorded a place in that science whose province it will be to explain them." Warren Upham, secretary of the society, and well known for his writings on glacial questions, suggests that these mounds are of very ancient origin, dating back to the time of the glacier's recession or a little later. The lapse of so long a time would account for the disappearance of all human remains. In Septem- ber, 1908, Prof. X. Winchell hired men and had a number of these mounds trenched. Despite the very careful work and search, our hopes of establishing beyond a doubt the artificial origin of the mounds by means of exhumed relics were frustrated. AYe spent three days at this work. The southern part of the county still requires careful explora- tion. In the following townships the writer was unable to find any mounds : Vasa, Cannon Falls, Leon, Wanamingo, and Min- neola. Very likely some mounds will be found along the forks of the Zumbro. A few were seen near Kenyon. Warsaw has ten on section 8, and others near Dennison. Florence has a nice group on the terrace near the mouth of Wells creek. The inability to report fully on all townships is pardonable when it is remem- bered that it requires much time and thousands of miles of travel to visit and carefully examine a large county and do it at one's own expense. — Edward William Schmidt.