PAPERS RELATING 1^0 ANTHROPOLOGY. 



ANCIENT xMOUNDS IN CLINTON COUNTY, MICHIGAN. 



By M. L. l^EACH, of Traverse City, Mich. 



Clinton County, occupying a central position in the Lower Peninsula 

 of Michigan, is one of the most fertile portions of the State. The 

 northern part of it is watered by the Maple Eiver and its tributaries. 

 The Maple is a small, sluggish stream. Rising in the central part of 

 Shiawassee County, it takes a northwesterly course through the town- 

 ships of Owosso and Middlebury, in Shiawassee, and Ovid, in Clinton; 

 turns sharply to the northeast, then to the west, and finally to the 

 north in the township of Duplain ; crosses the boundary into Gratiot 

 County, runs a westerly course for 13 miles, and re-enters Clinton near 

 the northwest corner of the township of Essex. 



It is only of the townships of Middlebury, Ovid, Duplain, Greenbush, 

 and Essex that we have to speak in these notes. All the five town- 

 ships lie wholly within the Maple River Valley. The surface of the 

 country is gently undulating. There are no high hills or deep valleys. 



The land slopes down to the margins of the streams, generally with- 

 out any well-marked terraces. There are some extensive swamps and 

 marshes. The soil of the higher lands is a rich, sandy loam, easily cul- 

 tivated, adapted to general farming, and remarkably well suited to the 

 production of the cereals. When first settled by the white men, large 

 portions were covered with heavy forests of oak, maple, elm, beech, 

 basswood, and ash, with patches of pine interspersed; other parts were 

 what is there called plains, being comparatively level, with an open for 

 est consisting almost wholly of oak. 



The Maple River Valley was the seat of a populous settlement of the 

 Mound Builders. Their remains consist principally of burial mounds. 

 These stretch in an irregular line, in a northwesterly course, from the 

 township of Middlebury, through the most fertile part of the valley, to 

 the northwestern part of Essex. The accompanying map is suflBciently 

 accurate for practical purposes. I have taken great pains to ascertain 

 the position of most of the mounds relative to the lines of the Govern- 

 ment survey. When the location is given without qualification, it may 

 be relied on as correct. 



The mound on the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter sec- 

 tion 36, in Ovid, marked 17, has entirely disappeared before the 



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