lOO SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 72 



will serve to convey an idea of the magnitude of the group as a 

 whole ; the most important prehistoric site in the entire valley. 



It is of interest to be able to reproduce at this time four aerial 

 pictures of units of the Cahokia group, and these are believed to be 

 the first photographs of American mounds or earthworks to be taken 

 from the air. The negatives, with others, were made during the winter 

 of 192 1 and 1922 by Lieut. Harold R. Wells and Lieut. Ashley C. 

 McKinley, stationed at Scott Field, Belleville, Illinois, under instruc- 

 tions of Major Frank M. Kennedy. 



Unfortunately, weather conditions during the winter were not 

 favorable for aerial photography, and although many attempts were 

 made ground haze and smoke interfered greatly with the work. As 

 Major Kennedy wrote in part February 6, 1922, after mentioning the 

 mines and factories in the vicinity of the mounds : " These activities 

 produce a large amount of smoke which seems to settle near the 

 ground and form a blanket two or three hundred feet thick." Never- 

 theless the four pictures are shown to record the first attempt to 

 photograph mounds from an airplane. 



On the summit of the blufifs northeast of Cahokia, as indicated on 

 the map, are two mounds of great interest which command a wide 

 view of the lowlands extending to the Mississippi, and beyond. Both 

 are of conical form and rise 30 feet or more above the original surface. 

 One, as it appears from the foot of the blufl^, is shown in figure 105. 



A view of the blufl^s, with the beginning of the lowlands which 

 slope westward to the bank of the ^Mississippi, is reproduced in 

 figure 106. This is looking northward from a point southeast of 

 Cahokia. 



Extending from the main group which surrounded the great mound, 

 in a direction south of west and following a slight ridge, is a chain of 

 works which terminated in an irregular group of smaller mounds near 

 the l^ank of the Mississippi. It is to be regretted that all units of 

 this group have now disappeared. 



WEST OR ST. LOUIS GROUP 



There formerly stood on the right, or west bank of the Mississippi, 

 on the summit of the high bluflf within the limits of the present city 

 of St. Louis, an interesting group of mounds, twenty-seven or more in 

 number. All have now disappeared but fortunately their positions 

 were indicated on early maps of the city. 



One of the earliest as well as most detailed descriptions of the 

 mounds was that prepared by members of the Long Expedition, 

 more than a century ago. At that time they stood north of the settled 



