FOWKE] THE LANSING SKELETON 473 
will now be given. <A brief description of the locality and of the 
manner in which the remains were brought to light will make the 
particulars more intelligible. 
Owing to the peculiar composition and structure of the loess form- 
ing the Missouri River bluffs it can easily be removed with pick and 
shovel, and yet resists erosion almost like masonry. A vertical wall 
of it, as a railway cut or a river bank, will stand indefinitely if not 
undermined ; even a deep well, if protected as high as the water rises 
in it, needs no further attention. Farmers take advantage of this 
property to run tunnels in from the face of a bluff to any desired 
depth to make storage rooms for fruit or vegetables. 
Four miles from Lansing, the Missouri River, the course of which 
at this point is almost due south, is joined by a small stream which 
flows nearly east in a wide, deep valley. Near its mouth the south 
bank of this creek is a vertical rock ledge several feet high. which 
extends without a break to the cliff that faces the river. At the 
west, a hundred yards up the creek, this ledge ends at a minor ravine 
or “wash” coming from the south. Thus is formed a long narrow 
sloping point of land coming down from the upland at the south 
and bounded on its three sides by the river, the creek, and the tribu- 
tary ravine. 
Using the surface of the ledge as a floor, the Concannons, owners 
of the land and extensive apple growers, dug a tunnel into this 
spur from the north to provide the equivalent of a cold-storage 
warehouse for their fruit. For strength and safety this excavation 
was in the form of an arch, the walls 10 feet apart at the bottom 
and the top 8 feet high at the center. With these dimensions, the 
vault, if kept dry, would remain intact for many years. Their entire 
excavation was in the bluff deposit until it had reached a distance 
of about 60 feet; here limestone and shale appeared at the bottom 
of the wall on the east side. As the work progressed this rock for- 
mation extended continuously farther into the tunnel, sloping like 
a hillside. At 66 feet from the entrance or beginning of the dig- 
ging a large slab was encountered, lying against the shale as if it 
had slipped down from above. When this was removed it was 
found to cover human bones. As described by the finders it looked 
as if a body had been doubled up into as small compass as possible 
and either shoved in behind the rock or placed against the wall and 
the stone laid over it. ‘“ There were all sorts of bones; legs, ribs, 
arms, and other bones.” The skull was unbroken when found and 
was laid aside; all the other bones were shoveled unceremoniously 
into a wheelbarrow and thrown out into the dump beyond the end 
of the tunnel. Some search was made for them afterwards, but with- 
out result ; the workmen had no idea where they might be, except that 
“they are out there somewhere.” 
55231°—28——31 
