50 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



THE LORE OF THE SOUTHERN ILLINOIS OZARKS 



Clarence Bonnell, Harrisburg Township High 

 School, Harrisburg, Illinois. 



Almost every natural geographical division of every state 

 has some of its history recorded in song or story. With 

 the exception of Dickens' rather uncomplimentary reference 

 to Cairo, and a brief story of the adventurous days of flat 

 boats on the Ohio over a century ago in the story of Vir- 

 ginia Rose by E. R. Roe, little or nothing of legend or history 

 concerning the Southern Illinois Ozarks has gotten into 

 literature, either classical or otherv^ise. This is not for lack 

 of material. The setting is fine and the wealth of story 

 awaits only the imaginative mind. 



The mound builders left their story in great monuments 

 of earth in which are embedded earthenware water vessels, 

 images, and trinkets. The Kincaid mounds in the bottom 

 lands of southern Pope county, though scarcely touched ex- 

 cept on the surface, have yielded an excellent collection of 

 these. Numerous mounds, large and small, in the vicinity of 

 Shawneetown, abound in pottery of fine design and often of 

 large size. Two water pots found by Mike Robinson, of 

 Shawneetown, but now owned by the Museum of the Ameri- 

 can Indian in New York, show good design. One holds one- 

 half pint less than fourteen gallons, is fifty-nine inches in 

 circumference and sixteen inches high. The other holds 

 over eight gallons. Fragments of hundreds of others have 

 been found scattered over a wide range, but so distributed 

 as to indicate the vicinity of Shawneetown as near the cen- 

 ter of this ancient pottery. One piece owned by Mr. Robin- 

 son is the arc of a circle of a vessel four or five feet in di- 

 ameter at the mouth. 



Excavations in Shawneetown reveal an ancient Indian 

 village peopled by men who made a less perfect type of pot- 

 tery. Skeletons and implements of war occur here and 

 in more elevated places nearby in great profusion. Plumb 

 bobs of hematite ore, as heavy as iron and of perfect pro- 

 portion, a highly colored earthen-ware whistle, and charm 

 stones of beautiful natural colors are among these. Every 



