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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (May 31, 1903)
Monuments Left by Mound Builders THE GREAT CAHOKIA MOUND. A Monument of the American Mound Builders, Which Is Famous the World Over.' Archaeologists Are Trying to Secure Its Preservation for All Time. HEAVILY TIMBERED MOUND EAST OK CAHOKIA. r i m. lAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 23. (Spe cial Correspondence.) Mr. D. I. Bushnell, Jr., of the Peabody museum at Harvard has com pleted a plaster model of the so- called Cahokla group of mounds In Illinois, the preservation of which, either by pri vate purchase or a public appropriation, is being earnestly advocated by a number of American archaeologists as a national duty in order that one of the most important of all the relics of the mysterious Mound Builders may be saved for future study and investigation. This remarkable ,group of mounds would deprive America of what is, In many respects, absolutely its most remarkable native monument, and the archao3loglts are not alone In hoping; that it will be avoided. Situated near the center of a group of some peventy-flve mounds prac tically also In the very centre of the Moun 1 Builder's empire, the great American bot tom land between the Mississippi and the crescent shaped range of blurts that ba gins Just opposite the mouth of the Mis souri. Cahokla affords a view of the valley in all directions, overlooking St. Louis, some thing over five miles to the west. Its sea- account of his impressions Is still recog nizable by anyone who travels over the same path, stated definitely that the monks lived near tho mound, but not on it. "When I-reached the foot of the principal mound," wrote Mr. Breckenrldge, . "I was struck' with a degree of astonishment, not unlike that which Is experienced In contemplating the Egyptian pyramids. What a stupend ous pile of earth! To heap up such a mans must have required years, and the labors of thousands. It stands Immediately on. the bank of the Cahokla, and on the side next to It, is covered with lofty trees. .Were it sot for tho regularity and design ...... . . . v : ' ' ' ' ' '"A- i 'V J , . ..- - - - - " " ii i ir - ' t bT. louis was Built on" a mound like this. A Unique Member of the Cahokla Group, West of the Great Mound and Unlike Any of the Others. It is One of the Few That Have Never Been Cultivated and Archaeologists Think It Almost an Exact Counterpart of the Large Mound Once Standing On the Site of Modern St. Louis. among which the big Cahokla mound la famous as the largest structure of its kind In the world follows the winding course of the Little Cahokla river, near where It empties into the Mississippi, and was once connected, by a line of single tumuli, with the smaller group of mounds from which St. Louis derives its title ' of the 'Mound City." The great mound of St Louis has now vanished forever, but one mound still remains among the Cahokla group which Is believed to be almost Its exact counter part. The age of these mounds antedates any tradition "concerning them among the North American Indians. Like others scattered about in different parts of the United 8tates, they have figured promi nently in various romantic theories of an early race, differing from the Indians, and was Anally either exterminated by them or driven Into Central America, there to become the precursors of the civllUatlon discovered and destroyed by the Spaniards. Modern archaeology, un fortunately for the romance of the story, discredits this picturesque theory and at tributes the mounds directly to the dis tant ancestors of the present Indians an explanation that still leaves sufficient material, however, for the Imagination. However that may be, Cahokla Is the king of all American mounds. It covers nearly fourteen acred of land, and stands, as has been said by Professor Putnam of Harvard, In the same relation to other mounds as the "Great Pyramid of E$ypt to the monuments of the valley of the Nile." It Is perhaps all the more interr ing in that no measures have yet been taken for its permanent preservation and It Is therefore always In danger of being put to modern utilitarian purposes and so becoming eventually a mere memory, hard ly lesa dim than that of the mysterious na tion which originally built it Such a fate eral structure suggests comparison with the Teocalll, or ruined temples, of Mexico, and its more careful investigation, al though neither money nor opportunity has yet made such investigation possible, is considered likely to be of the greatest value in the growing study of ' American archaeology. -'. In its own immediate neighborhood Ca hokla is best known as "Monk's mound," a name derived from a mistaken tradition that the old Trapplst monks once made it their headquarters. As long ago as 1811, however, Mr. 1L H. Breckenridge, whose which is manifest, the circumstance of its being on alluvial ground and the other mounds, scattered, around it, we could hardly believe it the work of human hands. The shape Is that of a parallelogram, standing from north to south; on the south side there is a broad apron or step, about half way down, and from this another projection into the plain about fifteen feet wide, which was probably Intended as an ascent, to the mound. . By stepping around the . base I computed the circumference to be at least 800 yards and the height of the mound about ninety feet The step or apron has been used as a kitchen garden by the monks of La Trappe settled nenr this, and the top Is sowed with wheat." This early visitor concluded, after an examination of tho other smaller mounds, "that a very populous town had once existed here, sim ilar to those of Mexico described by the first conquerors. The mounds were sites of temples, or monuments to great men." Another later writer, referring to Cahokla, has suld: "It is probable that upon this platform was reared a capacious temple, within whose walls the high priests, gath ered from different quarters at stated sea sons, celebrated their mystic rites, whilst tho swarming multitudes below looked up in mute adoration." Modern archaeology discredits the "chphcIous temple," although it accepts the probability of swarming mul titudes and the likelihood that one of the largest humun-mndo piles of earth in the world had a religious purpose. Mr. Bush nell is of this opinion, basing his belief upon the fact that the largest structures raised by humanity have almost invariably proved to have a rellRlous significance. The ago and actual purpose of the Cahokla mound are questions which will perhaps never bo definitely answered, al though, for all that is known at present the answer may be patiently awaiting the moment when the mound is carefully tun nelled and its contents investigated. Like that of other relics of the Mound Builders, its uge was once thought to be undoubt edly several thousand years. According to this belief it might have antedated the ruins that have been discovered In Central America and a theory, has even been put forward that would carry it back to the mythical days of Atlantis, when a great convulsion of nature was supposed to have destroyed communication between the eastern and western continents, before that time united in a single body of land. Modern archaeology has very much re duced, without absolutely disproving, the likelihood of this remote antiquity, and the evidence so far gathered from the almost countless ruins that dot the valley of the Mississippi and its tributaries disproves also the earlier belief that the race which made them must have been materially dif ferent from tho Indian tribes, who after ward Inherited them. Tho absence of In dian tradition concerning the Mound Build ers is, for example, no longer taken as proof of anything more than a comparative - antiquity, for a study of the Indian has shown that a few hundred years would have sufficed as readily as a few thou- (Contlnued en Page Fifteen.) . " : ' " ' ' "- . . ' - - . .. - - ' i ' ' . ' ' 1 ( ' c .' ' '. ' . . ' '- " .V' ' "( t ' ' : '. . ' " ; -' . ' ' TWO STYLES OF MOUND BUILDINQ. One Is a Truncated Cone and the Other a.Parallelagrom. Both Stand South of CahokU and Represent the Two Mound Types Most Prevalent in the Group.