While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Cahokia Mound. The largest prehistoric artificial
earthwork in the United States, situated in Madison co., Ill., in what is known
as the American bottom, about 6 in. E. of St Louis, Mo., and in plain view of
the railroads entering that city from the E. Before their partial destruction by
the plow the principal mound was surrounded by an extensive mound group,
numbering, according to Brackenridge (Views La., 187, 1814), who visited the
place in 1811, "45 mounds or pyramids, besides a great number of small
artificial elevations." The name
Cahokia is that of a tribe which formerly
occupied a neighboring village of the same name. In form the tumulus is a
quadrangular pyramid with an apron, or terrace, extending from the s. side. The
dimensions as given by McAdams (Antiq. of Cahokia or Monk s Mound, 2, 1883)
are as follows: The base N. and S., 998 ft.; E. to W., 721 ft. ; height, 99 ft.;
height of lower terrace, 30 ft.; outward extent of terrace about 200 ft.; width
about 500 ft. The area of the base of the mound is estimated at about 16 acres.
On the w. side, some 30 ft. above the first terrace, there was a second slight
terrace, now scarcely distinguishable. Patrick, who studied the mound and its
surroundings, and prepared a model which was cast in iron ( now in the Peabody
Museum at Cambridge, Mass.), represented a small level area or terrace some 3 or
4 ft. below the level top. Omitting the lower terrace and counting the diameters
of the base as 721 and 798 ft., and the height as 99 ft., without regard to the
upper level, the contents somewhat exceed 18,690,000 cu. ft. Adding the terrace,
3,000,000 cu. ft., the total contents amount to 21,690,000 cu. ft. The wall of
Ft Ancient, Ohio, has been frequently referred to as one of the most extensive
ancient works of the United States, yet the contents of the Cahokia mound would
form a wall of the same base and height exceeding 17 in. in length, or more than
five times the length of the wall, of Ft Ancient, and would have required,
according to the usual method of calculation, the labor of 1,000 persons for 4½
years, with the means that prehistoric; Indians had at hand. The places from
which the earth was taken are apparent from the depressions surrounding the
Cahokia mound. In 1811, when visited by Brackenridge, the largest terrace was
used by a colony of Trappists (whence sometimes the name Monk's Mound) , w ho
resided in several small cabins on one of the smaller mounds, which latter was
cultivated as a kitchen garden. See Brackenridge, op. cit. ; Bushnell,
Cahokia and Surrounding Mound Group, Peabody Mus. Publ., 1904; Conant,
Footprints of Vanished Races, 1879; McAdams (1) Records of Ancient
Races, 1887, (2) Antiquities of Cahokia, or Monk s Mound, 1883. (C.
T.)
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
