The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1874-08-22
The Mound Builders of IN Mississippi Valley

The Mound Builders Of In Mississippi Valley
The June number of the Southe,u Noga,ia,
contains a suggestive article on THE archTo
logical aspect OF the lcw0nds or tAe Missis
sippi," written by Col. Louis j. DuPrc OF
Memphis In this article it is shown that SO
long rs the system of continuous levCcS along
the Mississippi is pcrSevcrcd in, the incvita
bic ovcrtlows will be more sudden and the
crcyaSsCs more disastrous. Unless there be
drains or canals by when the swollen waters
can run of The river will AT last break through
or ise over its banks, exposing the whole
MlssSsipl valley season after season, 10
losses such as those which have led To the in
tcrvcntiOn of Congress To save thousands Of
refugees from pCriShing by starvation. The
mUund-buildcrs, who have left traces of their
handiwOrk along the shores of the Father of
Waters, cXcavated Il canal, one hundred feet
wide from point just below Cape Girardeau
To the head waters of the White and 81. Fran.
els Rivers. lis obvious purpose was the di-
version of a large volume of III" supcrabun-
dant water of the Mississippi into smaller
tributary streams. At intervals of twenty or
thirty miles are other canals, still plainly de
fined parallel with the first, and designed TO
render ovCrtlows harmless. These canals also
solved for the mouEd-builders the problem
to aid the river in uphcaving It's banks, rs is
done in these latter days of less knowledge.
The system of drainage which they adopted
forty centuries or more ago is, in Col. Du-
Pres opinion. the only one that can now be
safely adopted. But more can be said Of the
mound, builders than that they cut drains and
canals. Not far from OsCCOla, Ark the
brick abu'ments of a bridge have been un-
earthed. In many places there are artificial
lakes paved with odojt. Instead Of ictceiBg
their farms the mouIdbmldcrS raised them
above the high,watcr mark.
Very few of the mounds which give their
name 10 the extinct race of highly civilized
Americans have been explored; but copper
and bronze implements, urns and vases OF
terra Gotta. and in one instance an idol of
bronze has been found. Whence came these
people whose defensive oarthworkS are found
on the Mississippi, beginning At point sew.
cHiy miles above Memphis: There are earth
en- walls, defining par3ilclogramS and bitches,
aud circular forts and long defensive lines
From these, il is Surmj,ci, the mound build.
CrS were driven back until The final struggle
for ,NIstercc, which took place i've miles
above the confluence oi Liirlc Red and Whit
Rivers. \ broad, deep ditch connects the
two streams, and buried within. il is said, are
myriadS ofSkclcions There was no survivor.
The silence OF oblivion swept oyer them and
their houses.
Col. DuPrc has been engaged for years in
attempting 10 determine who and what the
mound builders were By patient invesuga-
tion and comparison. and by personal eN-
animation ui the mounds and oi the remains
at cities and Notifications, canals, farms and
the like. he has obtained d fund of intnrma-
tIon, which, with his theories concerning The
Jos; race, is in course uf preparation for the
pres Il would H. difficult ~ find q subject
&C greater Interest, even in THESE Uliilitariar
Times. Than the tracing uut az The history of
IN American people WIN rose ~ eminencc
and passed aWVy thousands # years ago --
Charleston No-s