Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1869 — Western Mounds. [ARTICLE]

Western Mounds.

Many theories have been set up as to the origin, object, ami pnrposs of the WeSterti mounds. They soem to rise and fall in accordance with the ingenuity of the numerous writers on the subject. A curious and nover idea has been made public by a St. Louis Judge, relative to the mounds on the American tom. He argues that the locality of ,Bt. Louis and its environs was once tho bed of n great lake, supplied by the Missouri and Mississippi^ 1 with an outlet,at Niagara brails. In the course of centuries the barriers of the lake at the falls were worn away, as the present falls (the outlet al Jirie) will in time be. The great lake was thus drained, and the region because cultivable, lbit itjyas wdangcrous region. When the ioc ran and the drill-wood came down, the narrow passage below would gorge, :ihd the river would stand back in the former bed of the lake. < •'-.r ■■

To remedy this, a race of people far superior to the present Indians —probably the ancestors of the Aztecs—built,the mouuds.as placps of,refuge tin- themselves and their Hocks and herds, when I '-the water rose. They were evidently built for practical purpose*, and are clearly artificial formations. They were not iivteaded for tumuli (burial places) as no skeleton or weapon has’bePn fouhd in any of them ex* cept one skeleton and that was wrapped in a Mackinaw blanket. Tfwe take into account the “wear down’’of all these mounds for a thousand years, and count their numbers on both sides of the river, it is easy to see that they werfeonce capacious enough to furnish places of refugo for all the inhabitants of the valley and their flocks arid herds and provisions. Whoever looked from the dome of the court-house (continues the Judge) and saw the ferry-b.oat take the inhabitants of ; the American Bottorii from the [ mound bn that side of the river, at ; the last great overflow, will at onee see the plain, practical purpose of these mounds.