84 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BULL. 37 _ 
and 3 feet deep, and lastly a ridge 10 feet wide and 14 feet high. The ridges were 
apparently entirely formed of earth dug from the ditches, and two of them extended 
entirely around the space. No rocks appeared near by or in the enclosure. Black- 
oak trees 3 to 5 feet in diameter were growing over the walls, ditches, and inner area, 
and the whole surface was covered with a dense and luxuriant growth of bushes, 
vines, and trees. The ridges had certainly been at one time much higher, and the 
ditches much deeper. 
The meaning of the last sentence is, probably, that they must 
have been ‘‘higher” and ‘‘deeper”’ in order to be effective. As will 
appear later, when Professor Broadhead saw them they were in a con- 
dition not very different from that in which the builders left them, 
being protected by the forest growth which he mentions. 
The following are extracts from the report of Judge West in 
regard to Missouri archeology. Referring to this earthwork, he says:4 
On this spur, about a quarter of a mile back from its terminus on the river valley, 
stands a wonderful work, known as the ‘‘Old Fort.’’ It consists of intrenchments 
thrown up on the verge of the summit of the ridge on both sides. The intrench- 
ments are still from two to three feet deep, and are on either side one thousand one 
hundred feet in length measuring through the center from end to end, and inclose 
an area of from two hundred to three hundred feet wide, the trenches following the 
curvature of the summit of the ridge. At the sides there is but a single trench, but 
at each end there is a double defense closing the trenches except leaving a pass-way 
about fifteen feet wide. Near the center of the work a single trench is thrown up 
connecting with the main trench on either side, with a pass-way in the center of 
the same width as those at the ends. There are four small mounds in the works, 
which were opened last summer by Mr. Middleton, of Kansas City. Two of the 
mounds stand at the north entrance and to the right of the pass-way as you approach 
from the north, and two of them are near the center cross intrenchments to the 
left of the pass-way as you approach from the same direction. Mr. Middleton 
found human bones, broken pottery, and flint chippings in the mounds. The 
bones were very much decayed. The pottery is precisely the same as that found in 
the fields in the vicinity. The trees growing in the intrenchments are of the same 
age as those in the adjacent forests. * * * 
I dug into two of these mounds, in the field of Mr. Casebolt—they extend over 
four or five large farms—and fora depth of five feet I found successive layers of 
wood ashes and clay filled with broken pottery, flint chippings, bones, and shells. 
The bones were those of birds and animals. But Mr. Casebolt, on the same farm, 
had a cellar dug under a part of his house after it was built, and in digging, at a depth 
of about three feet, two human skeletons were found side by side, buried extended 
ina horizontal position at full length. The bones were said to be very much decayed, 
and crumbled upon exposure to the atmosphere. 
These mounds are possibly among the group on the adjacent farm, 
to the northwest of the ‘‘Fort,’ though it'is more probable they 
were two of the smaller elevations at the village site to be described 
later. If the latter, Judge West happened to strike one of the shal- 
lower pits and followed it to the bottom. 
Some time after these visits the timber and brush on the hilltop 
and for a few yards outside the structure on the slopes were cleared 
aIn the Kansas City Review of Science, 530, Jan., 1882. 
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