Certain Mounds in Haywood County, 

 North Carolina 



By George G. Heye 



1XPLORATION of the mounds herein considered was 

 undertaken by the writer in the spring of 1915, in the 

 interest of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye 

 Foundation, of New York City. 



The two mounds first examined are situated on the 

 farms of James and Richard Plott, two miles southwest of Canton, 

 Haywood county, North Carolina, and a short distance from the 

 junction of the forks of Pigeon river. Originally a third mound was 

 situated practically on the bank of Pigeon river, three hundred yards 

 northwestward from the "Heye Expedition mound". (See pi. 1.) 



The mound last mentioned was the one excavated by our expedi- 

 tion; it is on the farm of James Plott and has an apple tree upon it 

 (pi. 11). The second mound referred to, on the farm of Richard Plott, 

 also has an apple tree growing from its summit. 



The third mound, that marked "previously worked" (pi. 1), was 

 explored in 1880 by Mr Mann S. Valentine for the Valentine Museum 

 of Richmond, Virginia. The only remaining evidence of the existence 

 of this mound is a slight elevation. The situation of the earthwork 

 in its relation to the others is shown on the sketch-map, plate I. 



Near these mounds, and extending along the bank of the river for 

 a distance of more than a quarter of a mile, is a stretch of ground the 

 surface of which is six feet below the elevation of the land from which 

 the mound rises, and which, owing to its sheltered position, would 

 have been an ideal site for a camp. This plain is now flooded during 

 spring freshets, and its earth is intermixed with sand, but every 

 season many potsherds and stone implements are uncovered by the 

 plow. The surface from the ridge of the mound to this lowland is 

 covered thickly with similar fragmentary artifacts. 



THE RICHARD PLOTT MOUND 



The Richard Plott mound is conical in form and averages eighty 

 feet in diameter by eighteen feet in height. On the sloping side of 

 the mound many potsherds and broken chunkee stones of quartz 

 were found. As before mentioned, in the center of the mound grows 



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