PAPERS OF GENERAL INTEREST 51 



neighborhood in the Illinois Ozarks has its collection of 

 arrowheads, plows, axes, etc. Some of the many in Mr. 

 Robinson's collection are as choice as will be found any- 

 where. An old gentleman of Shawneetown, who died a few 

 years ago, had learned the art of shaping flints by pressure 

 and had attained to a fair degree of skill in making arrow- 

 heads. 



It has been suggested that the salt wells on the Saline 

 river near Shawneetown may have been the reason for the 

 centering of man's prehistoric activities here just as they 

 became the Mecca for the early white man. But Indian re- 

 mains widely distributed point back to other types of 

 Indians. In southern Saline county, we find rock covered 

 graves having stone lined walls. 



When the white man came, the Indian population was 

 considerable. Shawneetown gets its name from the Shaw- 

 nees. Not many tales of Indian adventure are told, for these 

 natives seem to have been given to works of peace, though 

 they were "not too proud to fight," for they once met and 

 defeated an encroaching tribe on a battleground in William- 

 son county. 



The early man left no written record, except one. Mag- 

 nificent natural features; — cliffs, caverns, natural bridges 

 — none of these inspired him to write, with one exception. 

 Near Ozark, at Gum Springs in Johnson county, the outline 

 of a buffalo was cut and marked on a sandstone cliff. This 

 figure is about one-third natural size. The outline and col- 

 oring of the lines resemble those in the supposed Aztec ruins 

 near the petrified forests of Arizona. Mute evidence of a 

 race of builders remains in remnants of the old stone forts — 

 one near Stonefort in Saline county and another north of 

 Makanda. These are protected in front by steep cliffs. On 

 other sides of the semi-circular enclosures, a stone wall ten 

 or twelve feet thick and eight or ten feet high gave protec- 

 tion from foes. Thus the white man found them, only to carry 

 away the sandstone blocks to make chimneys, fire places, 

 and foundations for himself. Today the fragments alone 

 serve to mark the site of the walls. No clew remains to 

 tell who made them or when. 



