The American heartland was ane time dotted past times thousands of ceremonial too burial mounds. They occurred over a large expanse that stretched from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of United Mexican States too from the Mississippi River to the Appalachian Mountains. When Europeans commence landed on America too works life that fifty-fifty the natives had no noesis of their root , they idea that approximately lost culture unrelated to the Native Americans were responsible for their creation , because they assumed that the natives were likewise uncivilized too likewise unsophisticated to practice such lasting monuments. These mysterious architects came to live known simply equally “mound builders”.
Serpent Mound inwards southern Ohio , that resembles a coiled ophidian to a greater extent than than 400 meters long. Another mound located inwards Baraboo , Wisconsin , is inwards the plane of a human too measures 65 meters long.
It is estimated that over 75% of mounds were obliterated past times farmers who regarded them equally mere bumps inwards the champaign too obstacles to cultivation. One early on Sauk County farmer was reported to convey said: “We were rather irked past times the large seat out of Indian mounds nosotros had to plough down. There must convey been at to the lowest degree 25 on our land….Some were shaped similar animals too approximately similar birds , too all were from 3 to 5 feet high...I suppose nosotros should non convey destroyed them. But they were too then regarded exactly equally obstacles to tillage , too everybody plowed them down."
The handful of mounds that stay today are protected , too listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Man Mound inwards Baraboo. www.wiscnews.com
“Bird Mound” on the due south shore of Devil’s Lake , Wisconsin. Photo credit: Jared Kuschewski
Serpent Mound inwards southern Ohio. Photo credit: Geocaching.com
Serpent Mound inwards southern Ohio. Photo credit: Roy Luck/Flickr
At nineteen meters , the Grave Creek Mound inwards the Ohio River Valley inwards West Virginia is ane of the largest conical-type burial mounds inwards the United States. Photo credit: Tim Kiser/Wikimedia
Monks Mound , most Collinsville , Illinois , is the largest Pre-Columbian earthwork inwards the Americas too the largest pyramid due north of Mesoamerica. Photo credit: John Stagner/Flickr
Monks Mound , most Collinsville , Illinois. Photo credit: Jamie Kelly/Flickr
Sources: Sauk County History / Wikipedia / Encyclopedia.com