Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1878-11-07

ILacon (IlI.) Home Journal

The region surrounding Chillicothe is pc
culiarly rich in remains of the stranse people
who once inhabited tho country and left i'm
perishable evidences of their lahors behind,
extending from Lake Superior to the 18th
mus, from Ohio to the Pacific. OF them and
concerning them history is silent. No rec
ord exists of their achievements and progress,
no sculptured memorial attests their skill
and greatness, yet all about us is proof that
population vastly greater than II W abounds
once inhabited these valleys aud reared these
mysterious structures Our houses are built
on tho grounds once appropriated by
othere, our towns and cities occupy
the sites of older Cities and Your
cemeteries are sacred to the memory of q
-ghostly people, who in the event of final
resurrection could rise up and claim owner
ship prior to the present occupants. an
vestigation and research tell us for what pur-
pose these mounds were made, but from
whence the builders came, in which age they
existed, and the cause of their final disap-
pearance We know absolutely nothing, and
all s resolved to the region of conjecture.
Mounds are of three kinds, viz: observation,
worship, and sepulture or sacrifcal-the'two
latter often combined in one. Upon the for
rner, beacon fires were built, and intelligence
conveyed from one part Of the country to
another. They are usually circular, though
many Of the second class initiate the forms
of animals and men 1a.4
Z On Saturday, parties from Lacon and else
where, with numerous delegation of the
ladies and gentlemen of Chillicothe, pro-
ceeded to open, under the guidance of Will
lam Clifford, Of ALA, Peoria county-one of
the ablest psychologists in the State-a
y. - -
town. "A survey made showed base of
ten. channel two feet wide was begun at
center, but owing to the insufficiency of time
and the want Of help, was abandoned, and a
partial excavation made from the top A
previous exploration had resulted in the dis
5covery Of numerous remains, but at three
feet below these 9 we'll preserved skeleton
was found lying on its back, with head point
ing southwest. The form was large, the jaws
massive and the teeth perfect. At the feet
lay the bones Of an infant, and the skeleton
when living was probably q female and !
mother As the excavation progressed, the
shovelers threw ont peculiar, black, closely
compacted clay, which on examination under
q glass showed crystals Of blood. Mixed
with this was q loose, friable soil, which
proved to Re ashes. East came a. layer of
stones, and this told what was before sus-
pected, that we had struck sacri6cial mound,
and one Of the most important yet d scov-
cred. The victims, whether prisoners of war
or inundated to please some supposedsleitys
were slaughtered and burned. the bl6od runs
ming: with the earth beneath, to tell the story
untold centuries later Of the sacrifice. Inter
mixed with the coil just above the stones
were found bones much ldecayed, butw whether
they were remains Of the victims q, were in
TERED there for q purpose, annot b told.
Possibly there was connected with it cere-
mony similar tsene Witnessed by Cameron
among the savage tribes Of Africa. A chief
having died, an immense pit was duo, oth4
bottom Of which w. covered with : layer Of