The Bossier banner., 1893-11-16
INDIAN RELICS IN KANSAS.
Indications of Vast Subterranean Cham
Der Near the Village of White Church.


Der Near the Village of White Church.
Postmaster George Hovey, of White
Church, little hamlet ten miles from
Kansas City, Kan, is an enthusiast on
the subject of old Indian relics, and
the older the better for him. From
far and near the boys bring him every
old arrowhead, spearpoint, piece of
pottery, and other relics which are
found in abundance all over that sec
tion of Wyandotte county. There Is a
certain spot in the vicinity where the
crop of arrowheads and spearpoints is
especially abundant, and the people
round about have for long time cir
culated rumors that the evidences of
the existence of prehistoric Indian
village were thick as autumn leaves in
Vallambrosa. The earth has but to be
tickled with the plow to laugh a peck
of specimens. They lie thick on the
ground and beneath the surface they
abound in seemingly exhaustless guam
titles. But this is oil the evidence Of
prehistoric village which cursory in
vestigation could discover, nor have
any of the gentlefolk thereabouts ever
found any evidences beyond the super
abundance of specim ems If, as ap-
pears extremely doubtful, the speci-
mems belong to prehistoric periods the
absence of any mounds, tombs, human
remains and all the other concomitants
of an extinct civilization such as are
found in the cliffs of Colorado, Is fact
stubborn to explain away. But if they
belong merely to the aboriginal period
covered by the life of the American
Indian of $50 years ago, the absence of
these things is not so material. For
the dead were buried in trees and from
one end of the land to the other are
these very specimens found. The pre-
historic village, therefore, faded away
in the heat of that July afternoon as a
mirage of mansions crumbles into
clouds.
Mounds, however, have been found
in other parts of the county, and the
believers in the prehistoric theory
claim that the arrowheads and pot
terry are of the same kind as those
found near White Church. But au-
thorities are divided on the measure of
are those learned in rock and clay that
claim that the weapon tips and vessels
so plentifully found belong to a period
lasting from no earlier than few hun
dred years, and that the remains are
all of the weapons welded by the
Indians Columbus found, and the rude
utensils of dusky housewives that
tanned the buffalo hide and ground
the corn in the time of Pizarro and
Cortez. 1t is regarded as impossible
that end less ages, cycles of tens of thou
sands of years, should have left these
remains lying loosely on the ground or
covered them with no more earth than
wraps the dead of later days. They
point to the fact that these remains
are not found in the strata that hold
! the remains of animals belonging to
prehistoric times. But the people in
the neighborhood of White Church be-
lieve in the prehistoric theory and be-
lieve they plow and SOW and reap above
and among the remains of savage civ
ilization.
There are unmistakable evidences,
however, that the entire divide run
ming through the settlement contiguous
to White Church is under laid by great
subterranean chamber. Wells have been
sunk in a swath mile wide and sever
al miles long and the sinking has been
attended with strange phenomena.
The bottoms of the wells have fallen
out and drills have been lost in cavern
Gus depths, through which the rumble
| of waters has been heard. The divide
| is several hundred feet above the level
of the river and yet drills sunk to a
depth of less than fifty feet have pene-
trated stratum of rock, then a spsce
of from two to ten feet of air and then
a stratum of sand, mud and water of
from six to twelve feet in depth, strik-
ing at last solid bed of rock. The
great extent of the rift argues the ex-
istence of an underground sheet of
water that plays many. tricks on the
honest settlers, making some wells go
dry and filling others up in a night,
losing tools for sinking wells and play
ing other pranks equally mystifying to
the farmers of the neighborhood. -
Kansas City Journal.