Goodhue County, Minnesota - Chapter 3: Evidence of the Mounds, 1909

Chapter 3: Evidence of the Mounds

The First Human Inhabitants of Goodhue County - Indications that They Were Indians - Location and Shape of the Mounds - their Purpose - What Excavation Has Revealed - Fort Sweney - Stone Cairns - The Lowland Mounds - Reign of the Sioux - By Edward W. Schmidt.

At what period of the earth's existence the eye of humankind first beheld the beauties of Goodhue county and surrounding territory is a problem which will probably never be absolutely solved. The theory that a prehistoric race, superior in intelligence to the Indians, once possessed this locality is not accepted by scholars in general, and it is doubtless true that the first human occupants of this county were the ancestors of the Sioux Indians; though from whence they came is one of the great unanswered questions. Evidences thus far discovered indicate that the Mound Builders, famous in song and romance, who left so many indications of their work in this locality, were prehistoric Sioux, or at least a race of Indians (possibly the Iowas) closely resembling them, and not an entirely different people, as has sometimes been maintained by scholars of others days.

The mounds! The mounds! Who does not love to spend a day among the silent monuments of a vanished race? Who is not charmed while strolling among these tombs, either when the green of spring covers them as with a carpet, while all around you the hills, lakes, rivers, ponds and woods contribute their beauty to complete the picture of a glorious day in June, or while the dreamy haze of an autumnal day tinges the gorgeous jianorama of the many-colored landscape with delicate tint of blue? To the charms of such a scene the lover of mounds is not a stranger, nor to the pleasant feeling of mystery that steals upon his mind as he gazes at the sepulchres that dot the terrace or stand out boldly on the promontory of a steep and rugged

Mistouy Of Goodhue Counts 19

One of the places to see the mounds on a magnificent scale is Goodhue county. Parts of the county are so rich in mounds that she need not take a back seal in archaeology, by any means. Archaeologists will he taxed for many years to come before the perplexing problems presented by the relics shall he unraveled into dear and continuous history.

What is the meaning of the mounds.' Who made them? Whence did the mound builders come .' When did they live here? What sort of life did they lead? What was their state of culture? Who were the first inhabitants of Goodhue county? These are some of the questions which archaeology is busy trying to Solve.

While Goodhue county cannot boast of mounds having such gigantic proportions as some other parts of the United States can. nor of such grotesque mounds as the serpent mound of Ohio, yet the mounds of our county are so striking in number, kind and distribution that they present a rich field for archaeological inquiry. Our late state archaeologist, J. V. Brower, had in mind the publication of another book whose main contents were to be the presentation of all known facts relative to the mounds and Indian relics of Red "Wing and vicinity. As it is, the mounds of Goodhue county will make no small showing in the forthcoming volume which is now in preparation under the direction of Prof. N. Winched, former state geologist. The number of mounds in Goodhue county is considerable. The largest number is found in the vicinity of Red AYing along the banks of the Mississippi. Spring creek and the lower course of the Cannon. Here they frequently occur in groups of no mean proportions, while smaller clusters, sprinkled over the spaces intervening between the larger ones, help to make a long, continuous series of mounds, extending many miles in length. Isolated mounds are not uncommon. The larger groups are invariably situated near the water courses and usually on the lofty terraces that give a commanding view of the magnificent valleys. Such a distribution of the mounds finds its explanation in the fact that the rivers offered beautiful sites for habitations and routes of travel in times of peace and war. and above all, two substances absolutely necessary to the maintenance of life, namely, water and food. The mound builder was not slow in pickingout picturesque places as a location for his village sites. The distribution of the mounds bears ample proof of this. Anyone who visits the following groups cannot fail to be convinced that the mound builders were certainly guided in the selection of the location for their mounds by an unerring sense of beautiful scenery and a high appreciation and instinctive love of nature as well as by other factors. At Red Wing there used to be some fifty mounds. Many of these have been destroyed by building operations of the white man. but some still remain. On the extreme nort Invest spur of the fair grounds a few nice mounds overlook the Hay creek and Mississippi valleys. The city of Red Wing ought to make it a special object to preserve these and keep them intact as an object lesson for coming generations. There will always be in each generation a certain number of people to whom the mounds will be of special interest, while a much larger number will always derive pleasure and recreation by an occasional visit to these historical remains. On Seminary hill, only two. almost obliterated knolls, remain on the extreme eastern spur of the bluff. These, together with the mound in front of the City hospital and the one on the wooded knoll in front of the ladies' seminary, are all located in places from whence a magnificent view of the valley, river, lake and wooded bluff can be had. The same practically holds true of the 200 mounds near Cannon Junction, some of which are located on the high brow of one of the finest glacial terraces in the country. From there the chain of mound groups extends with few interruptions to Welch, and all of them are situated on the imposing remains which mark the former bottom of the glacial river whose raging flood in the long ago rushed through this valley, carrying with it untold quantities of sand, cobble stones and rocks, filling up the valleys in places to the height of eighty feet. During postglacial times, large portions of this deposit have been swepl ou1 by the Cannon river, and it is chiefly on the remnants of the glacial terraces that the mounds are located. A beautiful illustration of this is seen at Fort Sweney. Directly south of the Great Western station at Welch is a small area about an acre in extent which erosion has almost detached from the rest of the terrace. A long neck of land serves as an isthmus to unite this area with the rest of the terrace towards the south and thus prevents it from being an isolated knoll. On this unique elevation is the only prehistoric fort known in Goodhue county, but it is one of the nicest in Minnesota. It was discovered in the following manner: In the spring of 1902 the state archa'ologist, J. V. Brower, asked the writer to examine the region between Cannon Falls and Welch. On May 1st I walked from Cannon Falls to Welch without finding a single mound. Having half an hour left before the evening train arrived, I climbed the terrace to see how the valley looked. This brought the mounds on the hill into view, and a rapid inspection of the place revealed all the evidences of a strong fortification. Six mounds crowned the inclosed area, while a well pronounced embankment skirts the southern edge facing the terrace, which is separated from the fort by a deep, wide gully. The following week Mr. Brower, Dr. W. M. Sweney and myself visited the place and made a careful examination of it. A detailed drawing of the fort appears in Vol. VI, plate XII, "Minnesota Memoirs." The number of pits, mounds, and other earthworks in this locality is forty-one. At Mr. Brower 's urgent request that the discoverer give the place a name. I deemed it proper to call it Fort Sweney. in honor of Dr. W. M. Sweney and his father. Dr. W. \Y. Sweney. for the very valuable services rendered by them to the study of Minnesota archaeology. What the former history of Fort Sweney is can at present only be conjectured. Mr. Brower pronounced it the finest fortification he had seen in Minnesota. This is saying a good deal, because he has examined a great number. The absence of other fortifications in Goodhue county seems -to tell us that the aborigines, who inhabited this region held undisputed sway over this part of the state. Fort Sweney may therefore only indicate a sporadic but powerful attack upon the inhabitants of this region by some roving band or tribe. It may also mark the place where the last possessors of the land, the Sioux, besieged the previous owners, the Iowas. At present there are not sufficient data at hand to determine what the exact truth is. Repeated careful observation and searches at the place have so far failed to reveal any implements of war of any kind. The place has never been plowed and the mounds have never been explored. Further research may throw more light on the obscure problem as to who the warring parties were, and whether the conflict was a sanguinary one or not. At any rate, the place chosen was one well calculated to enable a small party to make a stubborn defense. The sides of the hill are as steep as gravel can lie on an incline. The approach from the neck of land where only a few men could approach simultaneously was fortified by pits, an embankment and by a stockade. Traces of the latter are seen in the dent or depression that runs across the approach at right angles to its length. The valley side towards AVelch was undoubtedly fortified by the river, which at an earlier period skirted the base of the hill, as is shown by the depression in the plane of the valley at this particular point. A portion of the ancient bed is still filled with water and forms a pond. If this be true, then the construction of the fort must be placed at a considerably remote period of the past to allow time for the subsequent changes made by the river, which now flows on the other side of "the valley. A party besieged in the fort could easily render an approach up the hillside exceedingly dangerous, while the river gave an unfailing supply of water. Some of the pits at Fort Sweney could accommodate from twelve to twentyfive men. The pottery and other relics which we have found on the flats below are of the ordinary Sioux type. That the fort was built before the introduction of firearms seems very probable from the fact that rifle bullets can be dropped into it from surrounding hills, but in times when only bows, arrows and war clubs were in use the hill was almost impregnable. If the fort marks the site where the Iowas made a determined stand against the new invaders and later possessors of Goodhue county, then the spot is full of interest to the student of archa?ology, not only from the interesting fort "that is there, but also for the historical interest assoeiated with the fact that here the proud and dominant Sioux made a tight to gain possession of Minnesota territory. This, however, is conjecture, and the real history of the fortification may be far different. It is not always easy to read the story of silent stones and heaps of earth.

The extreme northern part of Goodhue county, composed of Prairie Island in the town of Welch and Burnside. is also full of archaeological interest. The number of mounds and earthworks along Indian slough. Sturgeon lake. Buffalo slough and Cedar lake amounts to 260. One of the mounds near Indian slough is all of MOO feet long and has projections on it which look as though they were intended to represent the legs of some animal. The whole earthwork has a tadpole-like appearance. If this is an effigy mound, then Goodhue county possesses at least one of the remarkable class of mounds of which many beautiful illustrations can be seen in various parts of Wisconsin, for example. a1 Madison, where large bird, fox. bear and squirrel mounds can be seen along the lake shores. Across the river from Prairie Island are two more effigy mounds. They are two of a very remarkable group of 300 mounds, the Mero group. To see a more imposing group of mounds than is presented here in the short distance of a mile one would have to travel far. The land is fairly billowy with mounds and in many parts there would scarcely be room enough to build others of a size equal to the existing ones. Baby mounds and large mounds clot the surface everywhere. Those not familiar with the various kinds of mounds may gain an idea of their size from the following figures : An effigy mound lying in the open field was intended to picture some such animal as the wolf or lynx. The head is thirty-nine feet wide, the neck twenty-four feet, the body thirtyseven feet. The tail is forty-six feet long and twenty-two feet Avide at the base. The height of the body above the ground is four feet. The annual plowing and harrowing of the field undoubtedly decreased the height of this and other mounds. The beaver mound, which occurs on the northwest corner of the Mero group, lies close to the edge of the terrace facing the river. It is 190 feet long and is even more imposing than the one jusi described. It may be true that this mound represents ,i heaver emerging from a pond. The dam terminates in a mound six feet high and forty-two feet across. The best time to view these or any other mounds is in the spring before the grass and weeds get a good start.

At the Adams farm, near Hager, is a group of seventy-four mounds. One of the largest is located in an adjoining cemetery and is so large that no less than twenty- three gravestones, marking intrusive burials by white people, can be counted upon it. About two miles east of Hager is a boulder outline or pictograph representing a large bow and arrow. It is situated on the talus slope of one of the bluffs on Mr. Shaver's farm and is made up of limestones laid in such a way as to represent a bent bow with the arrow pointing towards Lake Pepin. The bow is 185 feet long and under favorable conditions can be seen at a distance of four or five miles. Near Bay City are a few more mounds. Prof. Hill and I dug trenches through some of these, but failed to find any relics. In Trenton slough there is a long bar jutting out into the water. Here a considerable number of pits dent the ground. In digging into one of these I found a tomahawk, ashes and pottery. The pits probably mark the site of dwelling places where the lodges were partially built below the surface as a protection against the cold of winter. While the prehistoric remains located at Diamond Bluff, Bay ( 'ity and at the Adams farm near Hager do not lie within Goodhue county, they cannot be omitted in this connection, because they form one harmonious whole with the mounds on the Minnesota side of the river and help to swell the testimony that this region was long occupied by a race that lived in considerable numbers on both sides of the river and wrere undisputed masters of the whole region. Where hostile territories in our state touched each other, there the boundary line can be roughly traced by the forts and ramparts. Forts are, however, absent in this region, except the fort at Welch. The similarity, and we may say, identity, of many articles, such as arrows and war clubs, and the similarity of decorations on pottery found at the places mentioned point to the same conclusion. Hay creek and Spring creek also furnish their contingent of 150 or more mounds, so that the total number of tumuli, earthworks, embankments, etc., that occur along the numberless water courses within eleven miles of Red Wing runs up, by actual count, close to 2,000. Such an array of earthworks may be expected to present considerable variety of size, shape and purpose in construction. By far the larger number are of the round kind so typical of this part of the United States. Others are oblong. A few, as already stated, are of the singular kind called effigy mounds and repre- sent wild animals. In height the mounds usually vary from a swell of land to four feet. Some are considerably higher. On the terrace opposite the mouth of Belle creek is a mound sixtyfive feet long, thirty feet wide and three feet high. Another mound in the same group is eighty-six feet long, fifty feet wide from base to base across the top, and six feet high at one end. One of the mounds on the brow of Diamond bluff was originally twelve feet high. This mound was selected by four of us as a favorable specimen for exploration. We were, however, ill repaid for our labor as far as finding any relics was concerned. The round-topped mounds measure from ten to forty feet or more in diameter. Their circumference is usually circular. Departures from this shape are due to weather erosion, or to some other degrading agency. Occasionally walls of earth many feet in length but low in elevation are found. A portion of such a wall was removed in grading a street on the fair grounds at Red Whig, and thirteen skeletons were brought to light. It would seem as though these earthenwork walls were formed by burying a large number of dead in a row. The burials may have occurred at different intervals, and in course of time a long earthwork was the result. The arrangement of mounds in the various groups does not seem to depend on any definite rule of order, but seems to result from a process of mound building extending over a considerable period of time, each site for a mound being selected by the builders according to the space, material or topography of the locality. Undoubtedly each mound was placed for some definite purpose in the spot where it is found today, but what the purpose of any mound was may be difficult to say. The spade often partially tells us what we want to know, but sometimes it leaves us as much as ever in the dark. When the interior of a mound reveals human bones, then the inference is that the mound served as a tomb, but intrusive burials may, of course, complicate the problem. But when a mound can be opened without revealing any trace of human remains or of artificial articles, it seems safe to conclude that not all the mounds were built for burial purposes. The erection of such a large number of mounds must have required an enormous expenditure of time and energy. If all the mounds in Goodhue county were placed in a row they would form a line of earthworks many miles in length. The tools with which all the work was done were probably wooden spades, stone hoes and similar implements that indicate a low degree of culture. Where the whole village population turned out for a holiday or a funeral a large mound could be built in a much shorter time than if the work was performed by only a few individuals. The surface of the land adjoining the mound frequently shows plain evidences of where the material was obtained for the construction of the mound. All in all, the regularity, symmetry and even mathematical exactness with which the mounds are built show considerable skill and taste. The reader can picture to himself the funeral scenes, the wailing of the sorrowing survivors and the (lames of funeral pyres which were sometimes built.

Another interesting class of aboriginal remains in Goodhue county are the so-called "stone cairns" found, with few exceptions, on the bluffs between Hay creek and Spring creek. A baker's dozen of these have been located. They are conical piles of stones, now much mutilated, measuring up to twelve feet in diameter at the base. They are about as unique archaeological structures as any found in the state, because no others are found, if memory serves me right, nearer than in Illinois and Kansas. There is little reason to doubt that they are old stone graves, so old that all positive traces of human bodies buried in them have been obliterated. Therefore they are hundreds of years old, and may have been built by a tribe of Indians who lived here before the Sioux arrived. If they were built by the Sioux, then it is strange that the number of cairns is so small and confined to such a limited area.

In regard to the origin of the mounds it may be said in brief that they are of Indian origin. The idea of a prehistoric race of mound builders distinct from the Indian has been exploded by archaeological research, but it is very common to find this idea expressed in books of the last generation and in the minds of those who in early childhood had the "mound builder" theory instilled into them. The real mound builder was a genuine Indian and not a member of some other race. The evidences of this are many. Indians are known to have built mounds. The articles found in the mounds are the same in kind and make as those found on the nearby village site. Invariably a large mound group has a village site close by. The articles found on the sites and in the mounds are such as the Indians used. Space forbids a discussion of this subject, but here is a partial list of the objects that have been found in .Goodhue county: Arrows, of various sizes and shapes, made of chert, quartz, quartzite, gunflint and other varieties of rock; spearheads, knives, awls, needles, hammerstones, millstones, clubs, sinkers, bone implements, fragments of pipes, scrapers in profusion, ice-axes, spuds, chungee stones, paint pots, paint cups, hammers of hematite and other kinds of rocks, fleshers, polishing stones, drills, hairpins, a decorated buffalo-rib knife, mauls, stone balls, flakes, chisels, lances, mullers, mortars, whetstones, decorated pieces of clam shells, also vast numbers of spalls, chips, rejects and fragmentary implements in various stages of com- pletion, a slate charm, pieces of lead, probably brought up from Missouri, bones of many kinds of animals, rough tools, etc. Vast numbers of pottery fragments and a few entire vessels have also been found. Also a copper spear at Spring creek, two large copper spuds near Diamond bluff, a small hoe made from a piece of rifle barrel deposited in one of the Indian graves where the Red Wing Seminary main building stands, and shell beads from the same locality. Space forbids a detailed, description of these relics. However, a few thoughts suggested by them relative to the state of culture, habits, modes of life and occupations of our predecessors may be mentioned. Fortified hills, tomahawks, battle clubs, spearheads, etc., mean war. Arrows signify war and the chase. We do not know what human beings first beheld the beautiful hills and valleys of Goodhue county and claimed them as their home. We may never be able to look beyond the veil or penetrate the mists that enshroud the history of the past, yet we are not left in utter darkness. The relics mentioned tell us many interesting stories. The absence of great architectural ruins show that the mound builders lived in frail homes. The dearth of agricultural implements does not spell waving fields of golden grain. The ashpits and fireplaces mark the bare ground as the aboriginal stove. Net-sinkers imply the use of nets; iceaxes the chopping of holes in the ice to procure water, stone axes a clumsy device for splitting wood; stone knives for scalping, cutting meat, leather and twigs; countless flakes mark the ancient arrow maker's workshop; cracked bones show the Indian's love for marrow; shell beads, charms and ornaments in the shape of fish and other designs reveal a primitive desire for ornamentation; chisels and gouges recall the making of canoes; sun-dried pottery made of clay mixed with coarse sand, clam shells or powdered granite and marked with rows of dots made with a stick, thumbnail or other objects, or else marked with lines, V-shaped figures or chevrons, all are an index of a rather crude state of pottery making. The hand supplied the lathe and the wheel. Inasmuch as some of the most ancient remains show great similarity to the more recent, we. feel certain that no great progress was made by these early inhabitants. A copper spear of recent date shows no more signs of smelting than does the copper blade that has been much corroded by a great lapse of time. Trees hundreds of years old give us at least some measure of estimating the age of the contents of the mounds on which they stand, and it also means that the mound builder lived there several hundred years, if not longer. By such processes of reasoning we can learn a good deal of the social, individual and family life of the savage mound builder.

elevated terraces, knolls and bluffs, there is another type of mound found in Goodhue county, which differs in several important respects from the former. The first group of mounds may he named highland mounds and the others lowland mounds. Lowland mounds occur in the town of Stanton, Warsaw and Kenyon. They are far more numerous in Dakota and Rice counties, where, in the summer of 1907, I located some 1,700. For some reason these mounds have hitherto escaped observation. Possibly the mound hunter, accustomed to look for mounds on highlands, would not expect to find mounds in such localities where the lowland mounds occur.

The following is a brief resume of a paper read before the Minnesota State Historical Society at the December meeting in 1908. The subject of the paper, ''Lowland Mounds in Dakota, Rice and Goodhue Counties," reveals where these mounds are found and implies that they all belong to the same class and are related to each other :

"In the southern part of Dakota county, particularly in the town of Greenvale and the western part of Waterford, is found a large number of mounds which, to all outward appearance, are Indian mounds. They differ, however, from the well known Indian mounds that abound in the Mississippi valley and interior parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota in this respect, that they are usually situated on low, level, and often wet ground. Mounds are usually situated on land that is rather high relative to the surrounding topography. For example, the mounds in the vicinity of Red Wing, Cannon -Junction, Welch and Diamond bluff are, as a rule, situated on terraces that skirt the river, or on the brows of prominent bluffs. The mounds found near our inland lakes are almost invariably placed well beyond the reach of water. The mounds under consideration are located on low, often marshy ground. For this reason a person accustomed to mound hunting along the Mississippi would easily pass by these lowland mounds without paying much attention to them. He might think they were curious freaks, chance formations of nature. Mounds of this type are also found south of Northfield, Rice county; also near Dunclas and south of there along the east side of Cannon river. Near Dennison is a large number, particularly about one mile west of the town along Prairie creek. All these locations are immature water courses that lie on glacial plains or along the Cannon river. The Stanton flats contain hundreds of these mounds. On the flats near Farmington and Castle Rock are found numbers of mounds in similar locations. The total number observed and recorded is over 1,500. The western part of Dakota and Rice counties is strikingly poor in mounds. One might expect to find a large number on the shore of the chain of lakes that occurs there. The absence of mounds in this locality is probably due to the fact that this is a morainic country made rough and hilly by the ice lobe which stood there in times long ago. A few such mounds are also found in the toAvn of Warsaw. Goodhue county. They occur in lowland tributary to the Stanton flats. The peculiar problem presented by these mounds is this : No positive evidence has been found by digging into them or by searching the surface of adjacent fields that would establish the origin of the mounds as being Indian mounds. Hence the question arises: What reasons have we to think that these mounds were built by man, and that by the prehistoric inhabitants, the Indians?

"The mounds are either artificial or else they are not artificial. If natural forces made them, then geologists ought to explain them, since the mounds are an interesting feature in the topography of the country. If these mounds are of a natural origin, then many other tumuli jotted down as mounds may be called in question. However, geology and physical geography fail to account for them. The only forces which one might concieve of as able to make some of the mounds in the location under consideration would be springs, the wind, and floods, but a knowledge of the distribution of these mounds sets these agencies aside as inadequate to form all these mounds in all the places where they occur. There are innumerable places where mounds ought to have been formed just as easily by nature, but no mounds are to be found.

"The mounds are invariably round; they measure from twenty to forty feet across, and are from half a foot to three feet high. Occasional specimens may be higher, hence they may form very conspicuous objects in the landscape; for example, in the spring when the grass has been burned off.

"People living near the mounds often have various ideas as to the origin of the mounds. Some think they are the remains of hay stacks ; others think they are gopher hills or ant hills. However, hay, when rotting, does not leave a residue of soil, sand and stones. The mounds occur in places where no hay ever was stacked, for example, in woods, or where water stands the year round, making the place wet and soggy. Gophers are occasionally found burrowing in the mounds, but gophers do not live in woods nor in marshes, and where they are found burrowing in mounds on high land they usually spoil the smooth convex outline of the mound with little dirt heaps, giving the mound a warty appearance. If gophers build mounds, why did not the legions of gophers in Goodhue county build mounds of all sizes up to forty feet across and up to four feet high in other parts

"In no ease were ants found to inhabit these mounds, nor do such mounds occur where ants are very numerous. A zoologist or botanist would have a hard time to account for the origin of these mounds by referring them to the work of animals or plants.

"These are only a few of the reasons which seem to warrant the conclusion that these mounds are not the accumulations of geological nor of botanical agencies, and since it is very certain that the white man did not build them, there seems to be but one other reasonable conclusion to draw, namely, that the mounds were built by prehistoric men who for some reason lived there either temporarily in the course of years or for longer periods of time.

"The creeks, sloughs and ponds furnished an abundance of water. Fuel in great abundance was near at hand. The sloughs contained beavers, mink, muskrats and other game. In the nearby forests lived the deer in great abundance. Moose and elk were also here. Farmers tell of having plowed up bones belonging to these animals. Of buffalos there is scarcely a trace, if any, of their former presence. The only buffalo relic observed was a partially decayed horn which I found near the mounds in the Greenvale slough.

"If closer study should prove the mounds to be burial places, then they are witnesses both of the large number of Indians buried here as well as the much larger population which was not honored by a monument of earth. The groups in the vicinity of Dennison probably indicate that somewhere between Northfield and Faribault a trail passed from Cannon river to Prairie creek, while the southern end of the Stanton flats served as a halting place or station. Traces of such trails still exist.

"The distribution of the mounds seems to be governed by the river courses and their tributaries, and by large flats which were either quite free from timber of else full of game. The absence of long mounds and the inability to find any traces of village sites or Indian relics of any kind seem to point to the great antiquity of these mounds, or else to warrant the view that with Red Wing, Spring Creek, Cannon Junction, Welch and other places along the Mississippi as headquarters, the Indians followed the water courses in temporary quest of game. They went along the Cannon to Faribault, Cannon lake, and very likely from there south into Steele, Mower and Freeborn counties. At least some mounds are found here and there in these counties, but, next to the Mississippi, the valley of the Cannon seems to

"In the absence of any better explanation, we may tentatively accept the hypothesis that these mounds belong to the province of archeology, and that the larger valleys and their water courses have played a large role in the distribution of the mounds. The distribution of the mounds along these water courses is such that the law of arrangement governing them is in perfect harmony with the law governing the general arrangement of mounds along waterways in other parts of the county, where we know that Indians lived and built mounds.

"'If these deductions are true, then the seemingly unsolved problem of this singular type of mound finds its solution in the conclusion that these mounds are the products of human activity in prehistoric times. Thus they will form another link in Minnesota archaeology that will undoubtedly reward further study and possibly help to lift the veil that hangs over the past history of our state's aboriginal inhabitants and their mode of life. It unexpectedly shows that Indians built mounds in low lands as well as on higher lands.

'But if it should ever be shown that these mounds are not the toiuhs or camping places of a departed race, then they ought to be accorded a place in that science whose province it will be to explain them."

Warren Upham, secretary of the society, and well known for his writings on glacial questions, suggests that these mounds are of very ancient origin, dating back to the time of the glacier's recession or a little later. The lapse of so long a time would account for the disappearance of all human remains. In September, 1908, Prof. X. Winchell hired men and had a number of these mounds trenched. Despite the very careful work and search, our hopes of establishing beyond a doubt the artificial origin of the mounds by means of exhumed relics were frustrated. AYe spent three days at this work.

The southern part of the county still requires careful exploration. In the following townships the writer was unable to find any mounds : Vasa, Cannon Falls, Leon, Wanamingo, and Minneola. Very likely some mounds will be found along the forks of the Zumbro. A few were seen near Kenyon. Warsaw has ten on section 8, and others near Dennison. Florence has a nice group on the terrace near the mouth of Wells creek. The inability to report fully on all townships is pardonable when it is remembered that it requires much time and thousands of miles of travel to visit and carefully examine a large county and do it at one's own expense. - Edward William Schmidt.

Theodore B. Sheldon is a name that will always be remembered in Red Wing for what he accomplished during his long life here, as well as for the beautiful T. B. Sheldon Auditorium, which was built with the money which he left to be expended for the good of Red Wing. He was born January 31, 1820, at Bernardston, Franklin county, Massachusetts, not far from the village of Northfield, made famous by the evangelist, D. L. Moody. He received a common school education in the schools of his neighborhood, and at the age of twelve began work in a woolen mill in Greenfield. Mass., where he remained until 1840, when he entered the employ of a cutlery manufacturer. In this business he remained three years and then went to Springfield, Mass., where he obtained a situation with a tool and lock manufacturing company. Two years later he removed to Whitneyville, Conn., where he worked in a gun and rifle factory two years, later taking up similar work for a similar period in Windsor. Vt. He arrived in Red Wing in the autumn of 1856 and went into partnership with Jesse Mclntire in the mercantile business. In 1860 he sold out to his partner and in the fall of that year built a warehouse and went into the grain business. Shortly afterward he took his clerk, E. H. Blodgett, as a partner, this arrangement continuing until Mr. Sheldon's death. Mr. Sheldon was identified with most of the leading enterprisesof Red Wing. In the early days he represented the steamboat lines and express companies doing business here, and was also agent for the Milwaukee road until the line was completed from St. Paul to La Crosse. He was largely interested in the First National and Goodhue County banks, being president of the former and vice president of the latter. He was president of the Goodhue County Savings bank, conducted in connection with the latter institution. He was also president of the Red Wing & Trenton Transit Company when that company was organized for the purpose of operating a ferry across the river and a road over the island. In this capacity he continued until within a short time of his death. Mr. Sheldon was one of the prime movers in the Minnesota Stoneware Company, and also in the Red Wing Gas, Light & Power Company, the Red Wing Furniture Company, and the Duluth, Red Wing & Southern Railway Company. His business capacity was recognized by his election as president of all these companies. He was vice president of the La Grange mills, and the Red Wing, Duluth & Sioux City Construction Company. He was also associated with various other enterprises as stockholder or director. He served as one of the supervisors of Red Wing while the township organization was still in force, and after the organization of the city was a member of the council. In politics he was a Democrat, and his church affiliations were with the Episcopal faith. Of him it has well been said, "He was a striking type of the practical selfmade man, and his success in life was due to his energy, honesty, foresight and fine business ability. His death was lamented by a community in which every man, woman and child was his friend." Mr. Sheldon died April 3, 1900, at the age of eighty years. T. B. Sheldon was married in 1818 to Mary T. Sturtevant, of Hartland, Vt. Five children were born to them, all of whom died. Mrs. Mary Sheldon died in November, 1891. In June, 1893, Mr. Sheldon married, at Milwaukee, ~SVis., to Annie L. Langton, who recently died. She was one of the committee with E. H. Blodgett and F. Buseh named in the will to determine how the bequest of her husband should be spent to best benefit the city, and many of the artistic features of the Auditorium are the fruits of her suggestions.