PERCH LAKE MOUNDS 



In all histories of Jefferson county, N. Y. there are slight notices 

 of the curious mounds about Perch lake. When Squier wrote his 

 account of the antiquities of New York they had not attracted atten- 

 tion, for they were inconspicuous and remote from ordinary travel. 

 Mr F. B. Hough seems to have been the first to mention them, a few 

 years later, and he said there were several at the mouth of Lowell 

 creek, Perch lake, about 30 feet across and with depressed centers. 

 No creek is now known by this name to the oldest inhabitants, but 

 he probably meant Hyde creek at the head of the lake, where there 

 are yet a number. He added that there are some on Linnell's island. 

 In these were found pottery, burnt stone and charred corn. Hough, 

 p. 10 



Linnell's island is not in the lake, but is an extensive elevation in 

 the great swamp west of its foot and north of the outlet, as shown in 

 plate 1. It lies between two large streams and is now occupied by 

 farms. Some mounds still remain on those owned by Messrs Gailey 

 and Klock. No charred corn has been reported by any accurate 

 investigator, and small coals may have been mistaken for this. Very 

 little pottery has anywhere been found, but charcoal and burnt stone 

 appear in all. In French's Gazetteer it is said that " in the vicinity of 

 Perch Lake have been found several barrows, or sepulchral mounds." 

 French, p. 360. It would not have been surprising if some of the 

 larger ones had had a secondary use for burial, being well adapted 

 for it in such a region, but no evidence of this has yet been found. 



Regarding these Mr J. S. Twining wrote me in 1886 of a more 

 extensive distribution of these mounds than has been given by others. 

 He said : 



We have extensive vestiges of a much older race than those who 

 built the forts and made the pottery. They are scattered along Black 

 river, some 6 miles from Copenhagen, and also on the hills back 

 of Perch lake, some 10 miles from Watertown, on the farms of John 

 Gailey and A. Klock. On the latter are the largest and most perfect. 

 They are the remains of camp bottoms, with a depression in the 

 middle, with a true circle of camp refuse and burnt stones around 

 them from 2 to 5 feet high, and with a diameter of from 20 to 30 feet. 

 I have never found a piece of pottery in any of them, but plenty of 

 flint chips. Beauchamp, p.113 



