ANCIENT MOUNDS AND EARTH- WORKS IN FLOYD AND 

 CERRO GORDO COUNTIES, IOWA. 



By Clement L. Webster. Charles City, Iowa. 



Floyd and Cerro Gordo Couuties, in the northern central portion of 

 Iowa, are among the most fertile portions of the State. The region is 

 watered mainly by the Shellrock and Cedar Rivers and their tributa 

 ries. The surface of the country is a gently undulating prairie with 

 only narrow belts of timber along the streams and a few isolated groves 

 or "patches of timber" adjacent to them. 



The west side of the valley of the Shellrock and Lime Creek sometimes 

 rises to a height of from 70 to 123 feet above the water in the stream, 

 thus affording a beautiful and extensive view of the surrounding 

 country. The soil of the entire region is a rich deep black loam, mostly 

 of drift deposit, easily cultivated, and remarkably well suited to the 

 production of the cereals. When first settled by the white man mueh 

 less timber occupied the surftice than now. 



In early times this region, especially the Shellrock and Cedar valleys, 

 was the seat of populous settlements of the red men; but not so (except 

 in the Cedar valley), of the moiind-builders, the remains of which are 

 mostly their burial mounds and earth works. 



On the south bank of Lime Creek, at Hackberry, Cerro Gordo 

 County, a small mound is located. This mound occupies a position on 

 the edge of a bluff, which at this place rises abruptly to a height of 70 

 feet above the water in the stream, and commands a beautiful and ex- 

 tensive view of the region to the north, northwest, and east. By the 

 caving away of portions of this bluff about two thirds of this mound 

 has been destroyed ; but, judging from the portion which still remains, 

 it must have been, originally, about 15 feet in diameter, and from 1^ to 

 2 feet in height, circular at the base, and with a gently rounded top. 

 Excavations revealed a horizontal layer of broken pottery, the frag- 

 ments almost always lying with the concave side upward. The surface 

 of the pottery had been ornamented by rude impressions, and had been 

 broken before being placed in the mound. This pottery occupied a 

 position slightly below the natural surface of the ground around the 

 mound. Associated with the pottery were numerous tiint arrow- 

 points (finished and unfinished), of various designs. In the extreme 



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