MOUND IN JEFFERSON COUNTY, TENNESSEE. 



By Dr. J. C. McCokmick, Straivberry Plains, Tennessee. 



The mound of which this paper is the subject is ou the left or east 

 bank of the Tennessee River (Holston) 4 miles north from Strawberry 

 Plains, Jefferson County, Tennessee. It is much larger than any other 

 in this valley. It is about 30 yards from the river's bank, and its re- 

 markable size and well-defined contour is such as will attract the atten- 

 tion of the most casual observer. Flints, broken stone, shells, and pieces 

 of broken pottery all attest that it is the work of the mound-builders. 

 The river at this point follows a course south 20 degrees east. No 

 ditches or signs indicating that this mound was used as a place of de- 

 fense are visible. Had these formerly existed the continued cultivation 

 of the land for so great a period would most assuredly have obliterated 

 them. 



The mound is circular in outline, and is, properly speaking, an earthen 

 burial mound. No stones of any size or in any considerable number 

 were used in its construction. In the immediate vicinity are the remains 

 of broken bowlders, but they do not occur in great numbers, neither do 

 they enter into the ''make-up" of the mound. In outline the mound is 

 nearly a perfect circle. Measured from the base ou one side to a cor- 

 responding point on the opposite side, on a horizontal plane, it is 120 

 feet in diameter. Its present diameter is somewhat greater than when 

 completed. This is easily explained when we take into consideration 

 tiic repeated plowings it ha^ from time to time received for a century. 

 Aside from this, the wearing and washing away produced by natural 

 causes were sufficient to increase its natural diameter to a slight extent, 

 while its perpendicular height has been greatly reduced. Its present 

 height is 12 feet. 



On Tuesday, November 2, 1886, 1 began an exploration of the mound. 

 A trench was dug on a level 3 feet above the bottom of the mound. This 

 trench extended in a direction north and south through the mound and 

 was about 5 feet wide. Another trench of like dimensions and on the 

 same level was begun on the west, and carried forward to a point where 

 it intersected the trench running north and south. At a point near the 

 junction of these, and 3 feet below the surface, was found the first skel- 



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