MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 537 



MOUNDS IN THE SOUTHERN PART OF PIKE COUNTY, MIS- 

 ♦ SOURI. 



By Joseph C. Watkins, of Ashley, Mo. 



There are mounds in this section known as " Indian graves." The time 

 of their construction antedates the settlement of this section by the 

 whites. Some of the oldest citizens suppose that the mounds were the 

 burial places of the Sacs aud Foxes, but they say the mounds appeared 

 as old when they first came here, sixty years ago, as they do now. I have 

 found no one who ever saw or heard of the construction of one of these 

 mounds. There are no other indications of a former occupation of this 

 region by the aborigines that I have ever seen. The mounds visited 

 by me are located in the southern part of Pike County, Missouri, as 

 follows : 



One mound on the laud of L. M. Wells, southwest corner of the north- 

 west quarter section 34, township 52, range 3 west, about 1^ miles south- 

 west of Ashley ; one on what is known as the "House Land," about the 

 center of the southwest quarter section 28, township 52, range 3 west, 

 about 2 miles west-southwest of Ashley ; one on the laud of James Far- 

 quar, northwest corner of the northeast quarter of the northwest quar- 

 ter section 10, township 51, range 3 west; three on the land of E. G. 

 Collins, near the southwest corner of section IG, and about 1 mile south- 

 east of New Hartford; two on the land of Benjamin Young, northwest 

 corner of the northwest quarter section 24, township 51, range 3 west; 

 three on the land of John Motley, near the southeast corner of section 

 24, township 51, range 3 west, and near the junction of the creeks North 

 Cuivre and Indian, and nearest the post-office of Louisville, Lincoln 

 County, Missouri ; two on the Coperhaver farm (now occupied by Nunc 

 Estis), about 2^ miles south of Louisville, Lincoln County, Missouri. 



All the mounds in question are situated on high points of land, form- 

 ing bluffs to the creeks Cuivre and Indian. At the foot of the blufls 

 are good springs. Back from the blufls the surface is undulating and 

 tillable. 



Three of the mounds are isolated, six in groups of threes, and four in 

 groups of twos. All the mounds are circular. They are composed of 

 soil aud rock, some with the dirt and rock alternating, some of clay, 

 with vaults of rock in the center. In the center of some there are rect- 

 angular vaults containing remains and soil. The material was i)robably 

 obtained nearby — the rock from the ravines aud the soil from the banks 

 of the same. Eight of the mounds have been partially exi)lored — all of 

 the Collins group, both of the Benjamin Young group, and Nos. 1 and 

 2 of the Motley group; also one of the isolated mounds on L. M. Wells' 

 land. 



In No. 1 of the Collins group the remains of two skeletons were found, 

 with some fragments of pottery. In No. 2 of same, in a rectangular 



