-KM. MM. I: I MAINS 



HIM.. in or Fixnfl 



In .June. l^'.'l. during a ^earch for tin- buried remains of the 

 famous Indian chief Black IIn\\k. M ---r-. !'. T. Parker, William 

 Morris, ami Charles S. Huntingdon, all of Omaha. Nebraska, dug 

 into a low eminence on the ciwt of a wooded ridge known as \AH\H '- 

 hill, -niiaic.l near ami running parallel with the Missouri, atamt 3 

 inilo north of Florence and 10 miles north of Omaha. According 

 to Mr. Miintingion. the only survivor of the three, they made a 

 moderate-sixed excavation in the elevation. When the work had 

 progressed to a depth at which Mr. Huntingdon's head was, as he 

 expresses it, "about on a level with the surface of the ground " (his 

 height is 5 feet T inches), he uncovered on one side, in the wall of 

 " \dlow dirt,"" about 'JO inches'' above the floor of the pit or trench, 

 a skull which fell out with the earth surrounding it, and on coining 

 in contact with the ground separated into a numln'r of pieces/ Mr. 

 Huntington says that he was impressed at once with the unusual 

 forehead of the sjx'cimen, a feature which induced him to carry the 

 fragments home with him. No other skulls or large tames were 

 uncovered, and as the mound yielded no archeological objects, the 

 work of excavation was soon abandoned. The fragments of the 

 skull were placed in the garret, and there lay unnoticed until the 

 latter part of 11)0(5, when, reading of the (Jilder discoveries, Mr. 

 Iluntington recalled his own find; thereupon he gathered the pieces 

 and sent them, through Mr. (Jilder, to the University of Nebraska. 

 This specimen, which is truly remarkable, has ta*en skillfully recon- 

 structed in the geological lata>ratory of the university, and is now 

 known as skull no. 8 of the (Jilder Mound series. 



A second episode in the exploration of the mound is best told in 

 the words of one of the explorers. The following account, prepared 

 for the writer by Mr. K. F. (Jilder, a journalist and amateur arche- 

 ologist, residing in Omaha, was received February 15, 1907: 



the early summer of 1!NN>, in looking for Hint implement*. I came 

 :n-i-idi'iii:illy across the moutul in the summit of Izmir's hill. dug into twelve 

 years before by Messrs. I'arker. Morris, and Iluntingtoii. The excavation was 

 about 4 feet square and '2 feet deep, and was filled with leaves from the adja- 

 cent trees and refuse mold from the ground aihout the o|M>nliiK. 



Karly in Septeml>er I iwisiti-d l.oiiir's hill and found that in the interval 

 sonic <>iif had been dimrin^ in the old excavation. A few piet-es of human hones 

 lay on the comparatively fresh earth, and I found later that Mr. Itankey. a 

 lu-iiclilx-rin- farmer, had picked up on the mound itortioug of the upper find lower 

 jaws from the riu'lit side of a skull. 



Mr. Iluntlnfcton makes no distinctions In the depnalts beneath the 10 or 12 Inches of 

 dark surface earth, referring to them In general ax " yellow dirt." 



'Mr. HiintliiKton Indicated about tlii- height from the floor, on the Hide of his safe. 



A. i-.-nHiii: to a later rti-ollcrtlon of Mr. llnntliiKton. the skull wan taken from the 

 earth In one piece ; It was tilled with clay and later separated Into fragments. 



