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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (June 6, 1901)
Conservative * VICTOKY. Once more to the charge and repeat The fearless , undoubting endeavor , The grasp of the hands and the spring of the feet Unwearied forever. The wind of the east and the north Has smitten and stabbed with his knife ; The edict of death has gone forth , And the issno is life. Out of March , through the mire and clay , Over April's brown slope and wet dune , It shall laugh from the summit of May , "Juno. " Name its victory Arthur Colton in the June Atlantic. THE LOWE SITE. Some weeks since , Mr. Morton re quested me to make a thorough investi gation of a supposed Indian village site , located about five miles southeast of Nebraska City ; so , on the IHth day of May , I again enjoyed the delights of Arbor Lodge , and partook of its hos pitality. Only those who have per sonally experienced the beauties of nat ure , artistically applied , and the cordial welcome so evident at Mr. Morton's beautiful homo , can realize the meaning of the above sentence. The next day we drove to the farm of Mr. William Lowe , and in his company , made a cursory inspection of the whole field , and got the lines of land survey well in mind for a chart of the locality. During my stay of three days in that locality , I was the guest of Mr. William Lowe and lias very estimable wife , who are quite as entertaining and interesting as any other historical feature of the state. Mr. Lowe is 74 years old , and came to this state in 1847. In our walk of two or three miles , I found his activ ity equal to any young man ; from 4 a. m. to 8 p. m. , he is constantly on the go few young men could follow him for a week , 1 and lie seems just in the prime of life. ' He attributes his excellent health and continued youth to the medicinal " qualities of a spring near his place , from which he has drunk for sixty years , i and to which the Otoes attributed won- j dorful powers , when they had their camp near it many years ago. Curious , i if Ponce do Leon's spring of immortal youth be in Nebraska ! Mr. Lowe claims the honor of setting the second tree over set in the state , and he has seen orchards of fruit trees grow from the seed ; bear the "apples that beat the world , " and then die of sheer old age. There is real truth as well as poetry in the above , as Mr. Lowe raised the apples , which , at the Centennial Ex position in 1876 , really "beat the world" they took the prize in the world's fruit display , and drew the attention of the public to Nebraska as the best fruit producing country in the world. Not ten rods from the spot where grew these magnificent apples , as charmed and charming as the fabled "Golden Apples of Hesperides , " is the most northern lodge circle , discovered in -I the Lowe site ; located on the very crown of the high bluffs overlooking the Mis souri , a mile or more away and giving full command of a wide tract of bottom , laud , which reaches to the very base of the bluffs a few rods east of these lodge circles , but at least 200 feet lower. There are seven circles in this group , still well defined , although the land has been in orchard and cultivation for fifty years or more. Mr. Lowe found these circles when he first came to the state , but the settlers , as they came in , called them , "buffalo wallows , " and so they are considered by most people to this day. While digging a well near his house some years ago , Mr. Lowe came to bed of charcoal and ashes at a depth of four or five feet. No indica tions were apparent on the surface , and he thought it strange that ashes should be found at that depth on the high bluff. From time to time he has picked up potshards and flints from , the sur face , and he began to observe and study these curious , circular "buffalo wal lows. " The Otoes lived in the valley below his house for many years , but they knew nothing of these curious cir cles , and soon took the same view of them as the whites. Had it not been for the finding of .potshards and char coal in digging that well , they may have remained "buffalo wallows" to the end. Some years ago Mr. Lowe found pot tery while digging a grave a few miles north of his place ; there was no evi dence on the surface , but at a depth of about five feet , he came to an ash heap and some pieces of earthenware , which had on the surface some curious deco rations like letters or hieroglyphics , but these specimens are lost unless they be in the museum at Crete. I would like very much to study the decorations if they can be found. These circles were in much the same condition when Mr. Lowe first found them , as they are today ; they are about thirty feet in diameter , and the ridge on the outside is about a foot higher than the surrounding surface , while the center is depressed about two or two and a half feet below the highest points of the outer circle. This group is ar ranged along the highest points of the bluff for a distance of nearly half a mile. There are three circles together at the north end and three together at the south end , with one about half way between the two extremities. Of the south group , I opened the middle circle , about 4 feet wide by 7 feet long , to a depth of 4 feet from the surface level. Every shovel of earth , after the first foot _ deep , was carefully looked over. I used a small box , and passed the earth from hand to hand. Every shovel full yielded , on an average , one piece of pot tery or one chipped flint. The pottery is the exact type found in the Roca site , and also at the Ancient site near Fuller ton. It has the cloth impression on the out side and is with tempered quartz-peb bles , mica and potshards. It looks like a part of the Roca site collection. In termixed with this pottery is also a smooth pottery not having the cloth im pressions , but decorated with a notched stick and tempered with fine sand ; it is similar to the specimens found on the recent Pawnee site ( on low ground ) at the mouth of Horse creek , northwest of Fullerton. Innumerable flint chips abound , many so fine 'that nothing short of sluicing the dirt will reveal them. Three almost perfect arrow points were found , made of the Kansas blue chert , as are all the flint chips discovered. All these points are of the same type , being shaped like the point of a table knife if it be broken off about two inches long. There are no notches whereby to fasten them to a shaft , and may , in time , be classed as an agricultural implement rather than a war-like weapon. I brought a quantity of the earth home with me , and have sluiced it very carefully. This earth came from the floor of the lodge , near where the fire place was located , This fire-place was indicated by a mass of ashes three inches thick , while the earth was burned to the color of a brick for a depth of twelve inches below the ashes. The floor from which I took the earth can be traced by a dark colored line on a level with the ashes , or , possibly , a little higher , as the fireplace seems to be hol lowed out slightly. I found nothing of note in the earth which I sluiced , except a few grains of powdered pottery , many flint chips and a small piece of bone , which is quite hard , but shows no signs of petrification nor the slightest trace of decay. Could the whole circle be exca vated and sluiced , something more definite might be learned. I have marked one of a pair of oak trees standing on the very brow of the bluff , not far east of the circle opened : "Lowe ' 01. B. " This will serve to identify the site. Nearly a mile southwest of this group of circles and back from the river so far that the bottom land can not be seen , but still on the highest point of the sur rounding surface , we found two more lodge circles , similar in every respect to the one I had excavated , possibly , a lit tle deeper. These two circles are on land but recently cleared of timber , and have just been discovered. I excavated the center of one of these to a depth of four feet , and came to a heap of charcoal and ashes. Out of this excavation (4 ( feet square ) , I took but nine specimens of the pottery , which is like the Roca potteiy and none of the smooth , recent kind. I found one flint chipped to a rounded point like the flints found in the other circle I exca vated , but this is more rude ; very few chips of flint were found. A number of pieces of flat rook simi- "BT