The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1896-12-17
SPRING IN A GRAVEYARD
Alleged Medicinal Waters Drawn
Indian skeletons.

Indian skeletons. III
The people who have for the lRtEa5
gears been deriving much real o. In
cied benefit from drinking the Hill
FINAL waters of Big Indian spri+ M Ion
The farm of Hans Egerede in the Ill fyn
If Springvale, Wis, are now afr@Ied
with qualms of the stomach that titltyat-
III to counterfeit all the good the 81 ing
may have done them. H.
In a narrow valley of the wild re ion
If the southeastern Wisconsin wter-
he'd, lies, or until the other day. ly,i
Big Indian spring. The co., Try
'oundabout is the hilliest and. lost
'ugged of the central west, I aIpre-.
.ipitous hills lacking only h At to
give the scenery all the characteristics
Of a mountain landscape. Some of the
lills are indeed quite high, rising
| 200, 1900 and 1,S00 feet into the.
oellucid Wisconsin air. Everywhere.
are the ruins of an older world the vet
lndestroyed battlements of the anG int
surface of the globe, left behind wan
| he rains and rivers cut down thetS8d
and graved the valleys, for these Is
;onsin mountains are not wrinklingsof
;he earth's crusts, or upheavals of vpl-
,anic fires like other mountains, Tut
| iint-capped eminences which, once ptrt
If a general level, now tower high
above the rest of the country their for
ner surroundings hhayi:;22sS- bees VA
lway.
In the very widest part of this re-
| yion, oozing out from under an i'm!
nense monolith that at a distance bears
The appearance of a rude semblance of
, man, is a lively little spring that, flow
ng some 20 feet deep, drops into
nearly circular pool some so feet in cir
,umference. a barrier ledge damming
back the current to form the pool.
This is the Big Indian spring, its name,
according to the belief of the Morse
! sOlk who make up the population of the
township, being given to it on account
IF the big rock at whose base the spring
arises.
But an inmate of the county poor
nouse, daft old man of unknown and
vast age, the last of the Yankee pioneers
VINO first won the land from nature
and then sold out to the Norseman and
moved on after the retreating Indian,
his old man has always insisted that
| The spring got its name for some other
'eason. and that it should be Stunned
oy all. His memory went no farther
than this, and though he always strived
| to remember what this reason was and
why the spring should be stunned his
| aged mind could never quite call back
what he wished to know.
| But the reason for the name of the
spring and the reason why the waters
should be stunned by all is now sicken-
ngly apparent. The last four years
have been dry ones in Wisconsin, at
specifically, not eXcsely, for the
lormal amount of beer has flowed, but
he rainfall has been deficient. This
year the rainfall has returned to the
normal, but the effect of the dryness
Of past years has not thereby been re-
paired. Whole forests dropped their
leaves in the early summer and are now
| decd. Dozens of lakelets, some of theRg,
square mile in extent, are now
|
| Springs and wells have gone dry every
where and among them Big Indian
spring, and the real reason for its name,
| long hidden beneath its cold, iron
impregnated waters, long sought in the
dim mind of the pauper pioneer, though
not the reason for its medicinal virtues
| has been disclosed.
L., &c, oh oil n
It's bottom for a depth of four feet IS
covered with human bones, heaped
upon each other, packed down by the
| nfltration of the waters, covered with
A light film of mud. At the upper end of
| the basin there are no bones, and stand
ing there one sees that the heaps of hui
man remains rise to a height of some
| four feet above the floor of the pool.
No single skeletons are to be dis
,erned. All the bones lie in an indis-
criminate mass, parts of skulls pro-
truding here and there. Whether this
is "A burial place of the Indians of our
own times, the Sacs and Foxes, who
were in southern Wisconsin when the
white man came, the Ojibeways and
Winnebagoes, who preceded them, or
the Dakota Sioux, who, before Column
bus, were Wisconsin Indians, none can
say. The old pioneer is dead and no
one can jog his faltering memory with
the recital of the late discovery, so who
the dead of Big Indian spring were
when alive seems likely to forever re-
main mystery.-Chicago Chronicle.
|