Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1904-10-26
MOUND BUILDER HILLS.
Prehistoric Race Had Village NeaI
MarsaM, Mo.

Prehistoric Race Had Village Near
| Warsaw, Mo.
SIX miles southwest of this little
town series of high hills border the
rlvcr bottom and look down upon the
Grand Pass lakes, says a New York
Telegram correspondent at Warsaw,
Mo, These hills are called the Pima
cles and differ materially from ordin-
airy Missouri River bluffs. They are
higher and much sleeper and are com
posed of earth and clay mingled thick.
| y with lose flint gravel
All over these pinnacles and over
miles of the back country are evil
dences of a prehistoric race who lived.
fought and died here What manner
of people they We're how they lived
and what became of them Is unknown
| The Indians whom the first white man
found here had no tradition on which
to base any theory. In years past
thousands of flint arrow heads. smear
heads, stone axes and tomahawks have
been found near the Pinnacles. Many
skeletons have been turned up by
farmers ploughng and many bore evil
denc" that their original owners died
fighting. DR., Dunlap, of Miami, who
came to the town in 1914, tells of n
skull found near the Pi1nacles which
had flint arrow head stuck in the
bone
There are many Indian mounds over
the region. some of them have been
entered and skeletons found, with
specimens of pottery
Some believe that here once was an
immense town Of savages. correspond
ing ia habits and modes of living with
tl,e lost people whom archaeologists
call the mound builders" and that this
town was attacked by other sarqges,
taken and its defo nders massacred.
On the summit of one of the pima
Giles is a curious earthwork locally
called the fort, which has given rise to
much controversy, some insisting that
it was the work of mound builders
and others that it was bull by more
civilized hands.
The old fort is now almost oblit-
Grated and hard to trace. Those who
remember the place before it became
corntield are agreed that the walls
were four to six feet high and bore
marks of having been much higher
The fort covered an area of about six
acres.
Inside the ground is comparatively
level, and curiously enough. no relics
of any kind modern or prehistoric,
have ever been found there
There has been a plausible theory
regarding this Old fort. Some daring
Frenchmen penetrated into the OzarR
country and established a few posts
as early as 1919 Other Frenchmen fol-
lowed to hunt. trade and mine. So
many came that the Spanish, who
claimed the country, resolved TO put an
end to French power along the Mis-
souri, and Mississippi rivers. In 1920
the Spaniards organized a force at
Santa Fe. which lives in history as the
Spanish Caravan" The caravan came
into Missouri, but before it caught
sight of Frenchman it was attacked
by Indians and annihilated.
This danger from the Spanish,
shown by the invasion of the caravan,
led the French to send a force up the
Missouri. De Bourgmont from Mobile
was it's leader. Somewhere he built a
fort and established a garrison. Soon
after it's establishment the surround
ing Indians destroyed the fort and
massacrcd the garrison. Many people
think the old fort on the Pinnacles
was once Fort Orleans, but that was
built on an island a short distance be-
low the mouth OF Grand River. Lewis
and Clark, who, on their expedition,
passed the ruins of Fort Orleans. veri-
fed this. This nullifies the idea that
the pinnacle fort was De Bourgmont's
Inflated post. for by no possibility
could any one mistake the Pinnacle for
al island.
Professor Lewis. of Minnesota, an
authority on prehistoric remains. came
to Miami several years ago and made
an exhaustive examination of the old
fort. He pronounced it the work of
the mound builders.