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FIND INDIANLEAD DIGGINGSMadison, Wis., Jan. 13—Several | Indian lead diggings have been found j and evidence of smeltfhg furnaces . used by Indians many years ago, by Charles E. Drown and Albert 0. Barton, of Madison, while studing the Indian remains iri Grant county, according to an article published in the ; latest number of the quarterly bulletin nf Wisconsin Archeological society.Although many evidences of Indian village sites, cemeteries and planting grounds, have probably been destroyed, the authors of the article were able to find about 15 village and camp sites and 10 mound groups in Plattcville, Harrison, Potosi, and Paris townships and in the vicinity of Cass-Yille.Some of the old Indian lead mines were found within tho city limits of Plattville. They consist of burrows dug in tho base of a hill near the water’s edge. An Indian smelting furnace was discovered some time ago in Platteville township at a place known asTufa Falls. It consists of j a hopper-shaped hole, lined with stone j grates upon which the lead ore was I was heaped and covered with burning wod. The melted lead dropped into he hopper.The most imposing mound groups located by the authors were on the tup of a bluff in Potosi township. One group contains four large line mounds, one of them Gt feet long, and two conical, mounds 25 feet long. At a distance of 800 feet from this group another was located which contained five linear mounds, the longest of which is 90 feet long, and 11 conical mounds, one of them 48 feet long.Grant county contains few relics of Indian implements, the authoru found. Copper implements were rare and stone ornaments, so plentiful elsewhere in Wisconsin, wore almost unknown.A copper banner stone or ceremonial weapon of ancient Indian days, which was recently unearthed in Fond du Lac during the digging of a sewer, is also described and pictured in this issue. It was found G feet in the earth and is believed to have bean lost on the lake shore many ages ago, before the lake receded to its present evcl, or buried by a later generation of Indians. A cache of interesting Indian relics nnd weapons was dug up in the same city several yean* ago. Thu articles in this number include “Grant county Indian Remains,” ‘GaasvilU* Mounds and Sites/” “A Copper Banner Stone/’ 'The Kosh-conong Pilgrimnge/f and “Archeological Notes.”
Newspaper Details
Daily Leader
Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, US
Sat, Jan 13, 1917
Page 1
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Badgerlink
WI, USA 29 Mar 2017
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