Weekly independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1887-1914, 1893-07-23
A TEXAS WONDER.
An Important Discovery Recently
Made In Wise County.
A Prehistoric Pavement OF Fortified Wood
Supposed to lave Deon Constructed
by Mound builders of an EK-
tinct Race.


by Mound builders Of an EI-
tlnct Race.
a discovery OF probably great ar.
Theological value, rs regards the pre-
historic people of the United States,
was recently made on the farm of IL
Eichwalls, twenty-five miles southwest
of Decatur, in Wise county, Tex. 1t
consists of 4 pavement of petriflcd
wood covering the summit of Il mound
one and n half acres in area. Samples
of he pavement were brought to the
Dallas News by d. N. Garvin, of Glove
land, o., who made the following
statement regarding the discovery:
The mound is sixty feet high, square
shaped and with slipping sides. II was
looked upon as IN ordinary clay struc-
turc until . short time ugo, when, in
digging the soil ON the summit, which
is level and measures an ucrc mud q
half, n pctriticd pavement was struck
under what appeared to be C. shallow
ssposit OF drift. Further explorations
showed that the entire summit OF tho
mound was paved. The pctriicd blocks
were laid ON onda rs ~compactly rs 4
cholso pavement. In places tho
pavement Is perfectly smooth, while in
other places, owing to the depression
that the soil has undergone during the
ages. it is irregular. The mound,
which was constructed with m~athemat.
zeal r.,scisinn, also contains como
blocks OF tone tina seem to have been
used In Il building" The samples of
the Pavement are u inches long, and
undoubtedly arc pctrilcd wood. Three
inches of their length is silica and tho
remaining inch, nucusur.ng to tho
wearing s~urfucc, is carbonate of lime.
This Combination, which is not uncoIu-
mon i'll Pc~;rIi!catiOns. shows that tho
pavement was probably set in silicious
SAINT aud that the upper part was SUBJ
Jcctcd To the action of water c~untain-
ing liEa" i'll solution. Thv blocks E;vo
evidence of having been split by n
sharp INSTRUMENT and sawed ut tn" ur-
per Sarflcc. While thousands OF
mounds haze been discovered on this
continent this is the only one in which,
through the agency of p~ctriiicatiua.
nature has cEibalincG an evidence of a
place Il. civilization occupied by tho
mound builders far in advance of what
had bccn accorded them by anti
quariana-
That this mysterious race practiccd
the arts of agriculture is proved by the
fact that mounds urc SO close torcthyr
il some districts a3 to have rendered IL
Impossible for their occupants ID have
Gub5i3tcd by fishing and hunti1ir: and
that those Inhabitants cngt,Erd in min
ing and commerce is proved by the dis
eovcry in Peruvian mounds of Lake
superior copper. liut although copper
chiscl5, nm n Indicated knives
THAT might have been used us saws)
hove been found in mounds, there
never was any proof that the mound
builders were % workers until thi,
discovery in Wise county. Wood being
M article tina time destroys, all its ev-
idcnccs of the home life of the mound
builders must necessarily have long
since been o~blitcrntcd, except where
preserved by the agency OF pctriiica-
ton. While this agency in the Wise
county mound n only preserved n
beautiful pavement, it may be inferred
that n people sufficiently advanced Ia
execute Il work that in recent ypars
has immortalizcd Nicholson in the an.
nails of street engineering were capa-
bic OF raising handsome wooden tom.
pies md other structures. That they
were not Of the same race rs the Iudi.
ans appears from the fact that tho lat
ter have no tradition concerning tho
origin of mounds, and were they tho
original mound builders, though their
civilization subsequently persisted,
they could nOt have lost track of such
an important part of the history of
their race.
r1rt1ip ~ io ,oo,, AL. II
builders who once thiclsly inhabited
t:lis country were ngriculturists, me-
chanics ana traders, but to find whence
came they and whittier they went ono
gropcs in the darkness of tho past,
Did their occupation extend back to
that period between the dawn OF mama
creation and the Noacl!an dclugc? Re.
muino OF man have been found in thia
country tina point to nntcdiluvian nm
tiquity. a piece of basket mating
was found in an island in Vcrnillion
bay ,Lou;6iana, below the remains OF
an elephant; the remains of . mnsto-
don, partly wasted, were found in Mis-
souri,, and in cxcavating for gas works
in New Orleans n human skclcton
was found below the remains OF four
cypress forests, the accumulation. in
the opinion OF scientists, recurring
fourteen thousand years TO form. Tho
geological ngc in which the pavement
on the mound in Wise county pctriGcd
Ia n live subject Of inquiry and doubt.
less will be disputed. Was it during
tho period in which n great chain OF
laltos extended from the Gulf of Mcx-
leo ~northward, or when was itp II
was Horace Greeley who undertook to
write up n mound for his paper, but
after nll he could tell about it was con.
tanned In the words: ut Ia here" lie
had not seen the Wise county mound.