153 
THE PateouirHic, NrouitrHic, Copper anp Iron AGEs oF 
SHELBY County, [yprana. 
By Wa GOrLrtimr: 
Exact date, I know not; but we will say nt least i,000 years ago. I 
will treat especially upon the mounds of Hanover township, known as Hog 
Back and Kinsley mounds. The former is 250 yards long, over 100 yards 
wide and was 65 feet at its highest point. As I study this prehistoric 
burial place I become convinced that it is a great deal of Nature’s handi- 
work, dating back to the drift period, because of the large boulders im- 
bedded in the great mass of choicest gravel. A valley between this mound 
and another very high ridge shows how the earth was taken therefrom 
and placed on top of the mound ridge, thereby forming a surface which 
caused the earlier white settlers to give it the name of Hog Back, much 
representing the razorback species. Old historic Big Blue River flows grace- 
fully past the east side of the mound, which rises abruptly to the height 
of 65 feet. On the north end flows a spring of sparkling water, which has 
quenched the thirst of countless ages; even.in this progressive period it is 
the camping and picnic ground for numerous persons each summer season. 
The land where this mound is located was entered by a Mr. Chadwick 
in Freeport, a smal! isolated village near Morristown, where the South 
Illinois Indian trail crossed Big Blue River. There was at oue time an 
appropriation made by the Indiana State Legislature for the improvement 
of Blue River up to this point, and on the opposite side of the river and a 
little below is a spot marked by the State Geologist where gold has been 
picked up, the retreat for many summers of Indiana’s most famous author 
and poet, James Whitcomb Riley, and immortalized by him. 
Some distance above the squat and burial-place of our pre-Columbian 
brethren which so beautifully overlooks the village lived a settler of pio- 
neer fame by the name of Pouge, who is supposed to have been killed by 
the Indians that had stolen his horses, when he with his gun followed the 
trail northeast of Indianapolis to a stream which took its name after the 
