Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-06-07

congress win be returned. The only
change in the delegation in the next
congress will be the filing of the va
cancy caused by the resignation OF
Judge Mcpherson. who accepted a
place on the bench We have plenty
| is of little general interest from the
| fact that our state is so strongly re-
publican and so staunch supporter Of
Mckinley that the facts are accepted
without discussion. Two years ago
our, state election was squarely on the
issue of standing by the administration
and approving the presidents conduct
of the war and the issue growing out
of it. AT the same time we gave Gov
ernor Shaw $1,000 plurality, which
plainly reveals our state of mind. Mo
Kinley will do as well this year.
SAT the fall election a constitutional
amendment will be submitted provid-
ing for biennial elections. This will
doubtless be adopted and our election
will be held every two years instead
of every year, as now.
Iowa is prospecting famously. Never
in the history of the state were the
people so we'll contented. We have
money with which to do our business,
and the surplus is constantly increas-
Il ing. We would not trade places with
|any state in the union
"The vicinity of Lehigh, Webster
county, was favorite section OF the
country with the mound builders.
South and west of the town on the
high bluffs there are some twenty or
more large mounds, one of which was
originally fully ten feet in height and
probably fifteen feet in diameter.
| Many Others are in the immediate Vi
entity, and in one place the traces of
an embankment, which would proba-
| bly, be considered the remains of i,
| line of Notifications, are visible for
many rods. Several of these mounds
have been partially explored, but there
are doubtless many relics of the old
race still left to reward the pains of
whoever searches for them. Erag-
ments of pottery, curiously ornament
ed, are occasionally found in the
mounds or plowed fields While in the
VICINITY last October our attention was
called to a deposit of bones some four
or five miles above the town in the
valley of the Des Moines. At that
point brook comes in from the adj
| jacent prairie and winds around L beau
4 tiful terrace which has an elevation
of twenty or thirty feet. The little
brook has washed into this bank, eN-
Iposing a stratum of bones about one
foot in thickness and perhaps forty
feet in length. We had no means Of
ascertaining to what animals these
bones had belonged, but they We're
| doubtless deer or elk. They had the
1 appearance of having been broken in
to small pieces, possibly to obtain the
marrow, or for the purpose of boiling
out the animal matter. The largest
fragments were about three inches in
length. Among these bones there have
been found in past years many nipple.
ments of stone, as flint arrowheads
1 and axes. Some of these implements
are quite unique, having been manu-
featured from materials which are not
i found in this state. Our visit to the
!. lspot was made in some haste, but il
seemed evident that on the terrace
mentioned there had once dwelt :
community of mound builders, ant
that these bones were the refuse heaps
which accumulated from their kitchens
or cooking places. The bones had sim
Iply been poured over the bluff or sweep
from the level ground and had slid
ldoWn to the level of the valley, where
they had been covered by a land slide
From the vast quantity of these re-
mains, the old mound builders must
have resided there 4 long time Shell
tered by the steep bluffs and thick
woods, this would be an ideal loc;.-
4 ton for such people as we may sup
pose the Des Moines valley mound
builders to have been. At that partic-
ular point the ground is level as "A floor
and high and dry above the water.
4 It is an ideal location for camp, even
lnow."