Showing posts with label Ancient Illinois. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ancient Illinois. Show all posts

Thursday, January 25, 2024

Scam email about Mammoth and Mastodon Ivory Sales in Illinois.

I'm writing this article, which includes a screen capture of the email below I received as a preemptive warning to Illinois residents and readers from other states.
With the poor spelling and bad English, it is most likely a scam.




Paleo-Indian artifacts are the remnants of tools, weapons, and other objects left behind by the first humans known to inhabit North America, dating from roughly 15,000 to 7,000 years ago. These fascinating objects offer invaluable insights into the lives and technologies of these early peoples despite the challenges of studying such ancient remains.
Mammoths were bigger and heavier compared to their predecessors, the mastodons, and closer in appearance and constitution to elephants today. Mastodons had cusps (grinding bumps) on their molars, which mainly distinguished them from mammoths and elephants with ridged molars.


There's currently no definitive evidence that Paleo-Indians in North America carved mammoth and mastodon ivory as artworks. While some tools and utilitarian objects made from ivory have been found, they lack clear artistic intent or decoration.

Types of artifacts:
Stone tools: These are the most common artifact type, as stone was readily available and durable. Tools include:

Clovis points: Large, lance-shaped spear points with distinctive flutes (grooves) running down the base are iconic symbols of the period.

Other projectile points: Different styles like Folsom, Scottsbluff, and Dalton points reveal regional variations and adaptation to changing environments.

Scraper tools: Used for processing hides, wood, and other materials.

Knives and blades: Employed for cutting and slicing tasks.

Non-stone artifacts: While less common, these offer valuable glimpses into other aspects of life:

Bone tools: Awls, needles, and ornaments made from animal bones suggest various practical and symbolic uses.

Fire hearths and cooking features: Evidence of controlled fire use, crucial for warmth, cooking, and toolmaking.

Rock art and engravings: Rare but potentially offering insights into spiritual beliefs and communication.

Several states have banned the sale of all "Ivory," meaning any tooth or tusk composed of ivory from any animal, including mammoths and mastodons. As of 2024, these states include ILLINOIS, California, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Nevada, Oregon, and Hawaii. Other states may restrict the sale of ivory depending on the item's age, origin, and value.

Since the sale of ivory in Illinois is illegal, reporting it is crucial to protect endangered elephant populations and combat wildlife trafficking. 


Here are some resources to report the sale:
1. Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR):
Online Reporting: You can file a complaint online through the IDNR's Turn in Poachers Website: https://dnr.illinois.gov/lawenforcement/target-poachers.html
Phone: You can call the IDNR's Conservation Police hotline at 1-800-252-8934.

2. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS):
Online Reporting: You can file a report through the USFWS's National Wildlife Service Tip Line: https://www.fws.gov/wildlife-crime-tips
Phone: You can call the USFWS's Division of Law Enforcement at 1-800-847-7353.

3. Wildlife Crime Stoppers:
Online Reporting: You can submit an anonymous tip through Wildlife Crime Stoppers' Website: https://wildlifecrimestoppers.org/contact-us/
Phone: You can call Wildlife Crime Stoppers at 1-800-642-WILD (9453).

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Thursday, March 30, 2023

ILLINOIS TOWNS NAMED FOR INDIAN CHIEFS

The original inhabitants of the area that had become the State of Illinois in 1818 included the Chickasaw tribe, the Dakota Sioux tribe, the Winnebago (Ho-Chunk, and the Shawnee tribe. 

The indigenous tribes of the Chicago area were the Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Odawa (Ottawa) Nations, as well as the Miami, Winnebago (Ho-Chunk), Menominee, Sauk (Sac), Meskwaki (Fox), Kickapoo tribes, and the Illinois Confederacy. 

The Illinois, aka Illiniwek and Illini [the Illinois is pronounced as plural: Illinois'], was a Confederacy of Indian tribes consisting of the Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Peoria, Tamarais (aka Tamaroa, Tamarois), Moingwena, Mitchagamie (aka Michigamea), Chepoussa, Chinkoa, Coiracoentanon, Espeminkia, Maroa, and Tapouara tribes that were in the Algonquin Indian family. The Illinois called themselves "Ireniouaki" (the French word was Ilinwe).

MIDWESTERN INDIAN CHIEFS, 1865.






 
Algonquin, Illinois – Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) - Named after the Algonquin people, a large linguistic group encompassing numerous tribes.

Annawan, Illinois  Derived from the Kickapoo word "Aniwa," meaning "thunder." Named for Chief Annawan.

Aptakisic, Illinois  Potawatomi

Ashkum, Illinois  Named for Chief Ashkum of the Potawatomi tribe.

Aptotakin, Illinois – Named for Chief Optagushick of the Potawatomi tribe.

Big Foot, Illinois  Potawatomi

Cahokia, Illinois – Named after the Cahokia Mounds, a major pre-Columbian Mississippian culture city. While not directly named after a chief, it honors the community's historical leaders.

Chebanse, Illinois  Comes from the Potawatomi word "zhishibéns," meaning "the little duck." Possibly named after Chief Chebanse of the Potawatomi tribe.

Channahon, Illinois  Named for Chief Channahon, a Potawatomi leader. Possibly name for Chief Shabbona.

Chenoa Township, Illinois – From the Ojibwe word "shenowa," meaning "big." Potentially named after Chief Chenoa of the Peoria tribe.

DuPage Township, Illinois  Named for Chief DuPage, a Potawatomi leader in the 1770s.

Du Quoin, Illinois  Kaskaskia

Half Day, Illinois  Potawatomi

Kankakee, Illinois – Comes from the Potawatomi word "Kankakee," meaning "cornfield."

Kaskaskia, Illinois – Named after the Kaskaskia tribe, part of the historic Illiniwek confederacy.

Kewanee, Illinois  Named after Chief Kewanee, a Peoria leader.

Lake Ka-ho, Illinois  "Ka-Ho" translates to "big water" in Potawatomi, referencing a nearby lake and possibly honoring tribal leaders associated with the area.

LaSalle Township, Illinois  Named for René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, who had strong ties with Native American tribes.

Loami, Illinois – Possibly from the Miami word "loam," meaning "earth."

Mackinaw, Illinois – Derived from the Ojibwe word "mikinaak," meaning "turtle."

Mahomet, Illinois – Named after the Prophet Muhammad, likely due to a local legend about a Muslim traveler.

Makanda, Illinois  Possibly named after Chief Makandocle of the Kaskaskia tribe, though historical records lack clarity.

Marseilles Township, Illinois  Named for Chief Marseilles, a Potawatomi leader in the 1810s.

Mascoutah, Illinois – Derived from the Mascouten tribe, an Algonquian people.

Matteson, Illinois ─ Named after Chief Matteson, a Potawatomi leader.

Mendota, Illinois – From the Dakota word "Mendota," meaning "junction of two trails."

Menominee, Illinois  Named after the Menominee people, an Algonquian tribe. Historically present in Wisconsin but with cultural ties to Illinois.

Metamora, Illinois – Potawatomi

Mettawa, Illinois – Potawatomi

Minooka, Illinois – Named for Chief Minooka, a Potawatomi leader.

Momence, Illinois ─ Named after Chief Momence, a Potawatomi leader.

Monee Township, Illinois – Possibly named after Chief Monee of the Potawatomi tribe, though this connection lacks definitive proof.

Moosomin Township, Illinois – Possibly derived from the Ojibwe word "moozomin," meaning "moose," but could also be a reference to a chief.

Moweaqua, Illinois – Possibly from the Kickapoo word "Moweaqua," meaning "place of the turtle."

Neponset, Illinois – Possibly named for Chief Neponset, a Massachusett leader.

Niantic, Illinois – Named for the Niantic tribe and their chief, Ninigret. Possibly from the Narragansett word "Niantic," meaning "island."

Niota, Illinois – The name "Niota" was based on the name of a fictional character in a dime novel[1], a Native American chief named "Nee-o-tah." (Algonquian Tribe?)

Oconee, Illinois –  Possibly from the Muscogee word "Oconee," meaning "river."

Okawville, Illinois ─ Potentially named after Chief Okaw of the Kaskaskia tribe. The Kaskaskia word "okahwa" means "big water."

Onarga, Illinois – Comes from the Potawatomi word "Onagan," meaning "white oak."

Oneco, Illinois – Potawatomi

Optakisic, Illinois ─ Named after Chief Optagushick of the Potawatomi tribe.

Oquawka, Illinois – Named for Chief Oquawka, a Sauk leader.

Orland Park, Illinois ─ Potentially derived from Chief Orland, a Potawatomi leader.

Oswego, Illinois ─ Named after Chief Oswego, Possibly a Fox or Sauk leader.

Owaneco, Illinois – Possibly from the Oto word "owanec," meaning "big river."

Pana, Illinois ─ Possibly named after Pana, a chief from the Cahokia tribe. Possibly named after Pana, a Chief from the Cahokia tribe.

Patna, Illinois ─ Kickapoo

Paw Paw Township, Illinois – Believed to be derived from the Miami word "Pawapaw," meaning "fruit of the pawpaw tree." While not referencing a chief, it honors the indigenous culture and environment. Possibly from the Pawnee word "pápa," meaning "head."

Pocahontas, Illinois – Originally known as Hickory Grove and then Amity. In 1850, the name was changed to Pocohontas (with an "o"). 1855, the current spelling with an "a" came into place. Pocahontas was incorporated as a village in 1847. The town was named after Pocahontas Coal.

Pecatonica, Illinois – Derived from the Winnebago word "pekatoniká," meaning "river of the painted feather."

Pekin, Illinois – Named after Chief Pekin, a Peoria leader who signed treaties in the 1810s.

Peoria, Illinois ─ Named after the Peoria tribe and their principal village.

Pesotum, Illinois  The village was named after Pesotum, a Kickapoo warrior in the Battle of Fort Dearborn.

Pontiac, Illinois  Named after Chief Pontiac, an Odawa (Ottawa) leader during the French and Indian War.

Sauk Village, Illinois – Named after the Sauk people, an Algonquian tribe.

Saukenuk, Illinois ─ Named for the Sauk tribes, though not after specific chiefs. (Black Hawk was born in 1767 in Saukenuk, Illinois).

Saunemin, Illinois – Kickapoo

Seneca, Illinois – Named after the Seneca people, one of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, it acknowledges their influence and historical connections to the region.

Shabbona Grove, Illinois – Named after Chief Shabbona, a Potawatomi Chief, honoring his role in local history.

Shawneetown, Illinois – Named for the Shawnee people, who lived in the area before being forced to move west. Named after the Shawnee people, an Algonquian tribe.

Shobonier, Illinois – Potawatomi

Tampico, Illinois – Named for Chief Tampico, a Potawatomi or Kaskaskia tribe leader.

Tolono, Illinois – Possibly from the Illiniwek word "Tolowane," meaning "black walnut."

Tonica, Illinois – Possibly from the French word "tonique," meaning "bracing" or "refreshing," influenced by Indigenous names.

Wapella, Illinois – Meskwaki (Fox)

Waukegan, Illinois  Named for Chief Waukegan, a Potawatomi leader.

Wauponsee, Illinois – Potawatomi
Wauponsee is an unincorporated community in Vienna Township, Grundy County, in North East Illinois. Wauponsee is located on Verona Road, 7 miles south-southwest of Morris. Google Mapped: 41°16′28″N 88°29′40″W

The Potawatomi were a major tribe in the Great Lakes region, and they had a significant presence in Wauponsee Township in the early 19th century. The township was named after Potawatomi Chief Waubonsie, whose tribe were residents. Wauponsee Grove, today a state park, was named for Chief Waubonsie.

Wyanet, Illinois – Derived from the Wyandot tribe, an Iroquoian people.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.



[1] DIME NOVEL - Any cheaply produced popular fiction published in the United States between 1860 and 1930 might be called a dime novel, providing it was published on paper covers (paperback) and issued in a series (chapter books).

EXAMPLE
"Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the white hunter" is a groundbreaking novel, considered the first true dime novel. It sparked controversy, having a female author, a sympathetic portrayal of an Indian woman, and a strong, independent heroine. Malaeska tackled themes of race, gender, and frontier life. It was the first published title in Beadle's Dime Novels series and became a runaway bestseller.

The entire series in one (pdf) publication: 
Malaeska is the Indian wife of the white hunter, by Ann S. Stephens. pub:1860.




Friday, September 2, 2022

Sinnissippi Mounds on the Rock River in Sterling, Illinois.

The Sinnissippi Mounds are a Hopewell culture burial mound located in the city of Sterling, Illinois.


The Sinnissippi mounds are a product of the Hopewell culture burial mounds. This tradition flourished in the Sterling, Illinois, area around 2,000 years ago. At that time, the area was at the center of a vast trade network that stretched up and down the Mississippi River. Mounds like the Sinnissippi were common throughout the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys.

The first European settler in Sterling, Hezekiah Brink, noted the mounds when he arrived in 1834. Among some of the other early European settlers was a group of men who were interested in starting a Science Club. The Sterling Scientific Club, in existence as early as the 1870s, made one of their goals the investigation of the burial mounds near the Rock River.


W.C. Holbrook investigated the mounds in 1877 and published a lengthy written account in History of Whiteside County, Illinois, published in 1877. One year later, another written account of a mound investigation appeared in The Sterling Daily Gazette. After the 1870s, the burial mounds were looted, and most of the archaeologically significant material was removed.

The Sinnissippi Mounds are part of the Sterling Park District's largest park, Sinnissippi Park. The park was acquired in parcels beginning in 1934. The area of the park where the mounds are found, located on a bluff overlooking the Rock River, was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on May 14, 1979, as the Sinnissippi Site. Despite its public nature, it is listed as one of the National Register's "address restricted" sites.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Tuesday, May 10, 2022

A Discovery of an Indian Effigy Mound in the Lake View Community of Chicago, May Date Before 1,000 AD.

Effigy mounds are sacred burial places built by Indians between 800 AD and 1,000 AD. They are extensive earthworks made from soil, usually about 3 to 7 feet high, forming shapes that can be seen from overhead. Some look like bears, and others resemble lizards or turtles.

Map of American Indian trails and villages of Chicago and of Cook, DuPage, and Will counties in 1804 was drawn by Albert F. Scharf 1900, a surveyor and cartographer who took an interest in Chicago’s 19th-century geography.
We'll look for evidence that a lizard-shaped effigy mound existed in Chicago's Lake View neighborhood, who built it, and why it disappeared. The answers to these questions illustrate how racism among early archaeologists prevented them from getting to the bottom of the effigies’ origins.
Scharf’s map shows the text 'LIZARD' (an “Effigy Mound"), located in Chicago's Lake View neighborhood. Effigy mounds are large earthworks made from soil that form shapes that can be seen from overhead.
Archeologists haven’t confirmed the existence of the effigy mound in Lake View, but there is some archival evidence of its location. 

The Scharf map reconstructed a landscape that had been vastly transformed from an area with a few villages and trails to a major city with several outlying suburbs and roads. Scharf relied on accounts from Chicagoans old enough to remember the area before 1833.

His source for the location of the lizard effigy mound was likely an artist and amateur archaeologist named Carl Dilg, who was obsessed with Chicago’s archaeological history and on a personal quest to document the ancient sites of Chicago. As he wrote in a private letter, Dilg wanted to make sure Chicago’s history was not “smothered and killed.”
The Chicago History Museum (formerly the Chicago Historical Society) has an extensive collection of Dilg’s papers, including notes he made from dozens of excursions to archaeological sites around Chicago in the 1880s and 1890s. They contain multiple references to a mound in Lake View, which he referred to as a “lizard” or a “serpent.” Dilg made several sketches of artifacts found near the mound and a map of the area now known as Lake View, showing the exact location of the mound, which you can see on his map.
In Dilg's sketch of the side profile of the lizard mound,
he compares it to another archaeological site in California.
But Dilg didn’t include a precise description of the mound’s length, width, or makeup.

Still, there seems to be significant circumstantial evidence that he’d actually seen it. For one, his depiction of the mound shows the head facing south and the tail facing north, as though the creature was walking south. This is consistent with other water spirit effigies that archaeologists have found in places like Wisconsin. Dilg’s sketches and notes also show the lizard-shaped mound had another round-shaped mound built adjacent to or directly on the “lizard.” This is consistent with the Potawatomi burial practice: The Potawatomi typically constructed conical burial mounds on the site of older effigy mounds. Finally, effigy mounds have been documented as close to Chicago as Aurora, so it’s possible effigy builders’ could have made it to Chicago.

But we know that there’s no lizard mound in Lake View today, so if it did exist, then what happened to it?

About 15 years after Dilg made his sketches, Charles Brown, a distinguished archaeologist from Wisconsin, visited Chicago to review Dilg’s extensive work. Brown wrote about Dilg’s observations, including one sentence about the Lake View effigy mound:

“A ‘lizard mound’ of doubtful origin was located on Oakdale Avenue and Wellington Street, under the present elevated station,” Brown wrote.

Brown’s notes suggest there was some kind of mound that was probably destroyed by the construction of the elevated train line that eventually became the Chicago Transit Authority’s Brown-Line. His use of the phrase “of doubtful origin” suggests Brown, a leading expert on effigy mounds at the time, doubted the mound in Lake View was a true effigy mound like those 800 to 1,200-year-old mounds in Wisconsin.

But archaeologist Amy Rosebrough says Brown has “been known to be wrong.” Brown’s doubt may simply reflect his own disdain at Dilg’s amateur approach to archaeology or his belief that Chicago was not part of the effigy mound builders’ territory, Rosebrough says.

Without a more complete record, Rosebrough and other archaeologists cannot verify if the Lake View mound was an authentic effigy mound or merely a lump of earth that Dilg’s romantic imagination transformed into an ancient sculpture.

If we assume Dilg was correct and the Lake View mound was, in fact, the same kind of effigy mound found in Wisconsin, that raises another critical question that scholars and archaeologists have been asking for 200 years: Who built it?

Early American archaeologists believed the mounds may have been built by a mysterious “lost race” of “mound builders,” sometimes thought to be an earlier Native American civilization connected to Mayan, Aztec, or Incan cultures. Some have theorized the mound builders weren’t indigenous to the Americas, but instead, they were a lost tribe of Israel or a traveling culture, like the Phoenicians or Egyptians.

These hypotheses, which range from unlikely to absurd, reveal a bias common among white Americans in the 19th century: They didn’t believe contemporary groups like the Ho-Chunk, Potawatomi, or Ojibwe, who all lived in areas with effigy mounds, were sophisticated enough to build them.

Richard C Taylor, a writer who traveled through Wisconsin in the 1830s, was typical of the time. He wrote:

“But to a far different race, assuredly, and to a far different period, must we look when seeking to trace the authors of these singular mounds. … But who were they who left almost imperishable memorials on the soil, attesting to the superiority of their race?”

This prejudice made archaeologists slow to accept the idea that these mounds were built by the ancestors of the Indians who lived near the mounds. But eventually, beginning in the early 1900s, American archaeologists began a more deliberate effort to talk with Native Americans about effigy mounds. Charles Brown and Paul Radin, two Wisconsin-based archaeologists, documented extensive conversations with Ho-Chunk people (then known as the Winnebago tribe).

The current consensus among archaeologists is that the mounds were built by several tribes or groups who might have been closely related and treated mound building as a ceremony. Archaeologists believe the Ho-Chunk of Wisconsin is one of several tribal groups descended from people who built effigy mounds, including the Iowa and Winnebago of Nebraska.

Over the years, the Ho-Chunk have claimed to be the descendants of effigy mound builders. In an interview with the Portage Daily Register in 2016, Bill Quackenbush, the cultural resources officer for the Ho-Chunk, said he prefers not to explain the significance of the mounds to outsiders. He said people should try to appreciate the mounds rather than analyze and understand their exact meaning.  
Digging into effigy mounds was a popular pastime during the late 19th century.
“The culture we live in today and society 100 years ago, they tried to do that,” he said. “They dug through them, took screens out there, shook the dirt, and looked for every little piece of information found. They couldn't find what they were trying to get. They had a preconceived notion in their heads already.”

So early settlers destroyed hundreds if not thousands of ancient sculptures, along with the historical record. They plowed under mounds to farm the land or leveled them and built homes on the sites. In some cases, early settlers claimed to have asked local Native Americans about the origins of the mounds without receiving a clear answer.

John Low, a Potawatomi Indian, and professor of American Indian studies, says he’s suspicious of these accounts, given that they took place during a power struggle over land.

“The natives may have said that because they aren’t going to share with people, they regard as the enemy, the specialness they know about a site.” Or, Low suggests, the white settlers may have displayed selective memory.

“We may have been written out of the narrative,” he says. “If the knowledge the natives have about these sites had been transcribed, gosh, that sounds like the natives have more of a claim, and it sounds icky to walk them out to Kansas or Oklahoma.”

By the late 1800s, when Indians were no longer seen as a threat to westward expansion, white Americans became interested in many aspects of their culture, including effigy mounds. But that interest was not necessarily respectful, especially considering mounds often contain human remains, and archaeologists felt free to dig through burial sites and take home human remains for display. Amy Rosebrough describes the popular pastime of “mounding”:

“You take a family out on a picnic and give the kids a shovel and bucket, and they would dig into a mound and see what was there.”

Unless we find new evidence in an archive somewhere (perhaps missing pages from Carl Dilg’s manuscript), Lake View's “lizard effigy” will remain a mystery. That’s because so much of the historical record was lost when the mounds were destroyed, says scholar and Potawatomi Indian John Low. As a Native American, he feels like the destruction of the mounds represents a desecration and willful disrespect of his culture. But he also sees a universal human tragedy.

“It’s something we should all feel sad about when they’re lost,” he says. “Like when the acropolis is lost. Or the pyramids. Or Stonehenge is lost. These, too, are part of the human record of achievement. What a shame.”

ADDITIONAL READING:

Tuesday, March 8, 2022

Illinois' Driftless Region Explained.

The driftless region or zone consists of the extreme northwestern corner of Illinois, southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, and northeastern Iowa. Illinois' driftless region borders are not well defined. Generally, they contain all of Jo Daviess and Stephenson Counties and the western portions of Carroll County near the Mississippi River.
The Upper Mississippi Region, about 15,000 square miles, was miraculously left untouched by glacial erosion and sediments during the last ice age.


Galena, Illinois, is a perfect example of a driftless region. "Driftless" refers to the geological history of the area; its ground hasn't been eroded by glaciers in the Pleistocene (last) Ice Age, nor does it have rocks or sediments (termed drift) transported by the moving glaciers. 


The driftless region is characterized by steep hills, forested ridges, deeply carved river valleys, Karst[1] geology with spring-fed waterfalls, and cold-water trout streams.
The Illinois Counties in the Driftless region.







As in Wisconsin, the Illinois portion of the driftless area became a significant center for Lead and Zinc Mining in the 1800s. The city of Galena was named after the lead sulfide mineral Galena.

In Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, the Driftless Brewing Company took advantage of the fresh, naturally filtered water. The great-tasting spring water is crucial to brewing their beer brands, and they chose to pay homage to the driftless area they occupy.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.



[1] Karst
is an area of land made up of limestone. 

Limestone, aka chalk or calcium carbonate, is a soft rock that dissolves in water. As rainwater seeps into the rock, it slowly erodes. 
Driftless area in southwest Wisconsin.


Karst landscapes can be worn away from the top or dissolved from a weak point inside the rock. Karst vistas feature caves, underground streams, and sinkholes on the surface. Where erosion has worn away the land above ground, steep rocky cliffs are visible.

                   ██  Karst Landscapes in Illinois.

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

The Prehistoric War Bluff Stone Fort, Pope County, Illinois.

The Stone Forts of Illinois.
One of the unique prehistoric phenomena of Southern Illinois is the ruins of stone walls which have traditionally been known as "stone forts." They appear in the rough east-west alignment across the hill country and appear to form a broken chain between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. These ruins have similar geographic site characteristics. They are generally located on bluffs, which are often finger-like promontories of land with steep cliffs on three sides and a gradual incline on the fourth. It was across these inclines leading to the top of the bluff that these stone walls are most generally located, hence the theory of a pound or game trap, has been advanced.

Many of the walls have long been torn down and removed for building purposes. Early settlers, in most instances, removed the better slab-like stones for building foundations, leaving only the rubble. These early white pioneers saw the walls and thought of them in terms of their own experiences, particularly from the standpoint of defense against the Indians. Though they called them stone forts, these sites would be very poor places to carry on prolonged fights.

If a small band took refuge behind the wall, they might be pushed over the cliff by a larger attacking force. Or a larger force could lay siege to the place, and the band would be cut off from both food and water and soon starve to death. Although they called them "forts," many people did not accept such a theory, and speculation continued.

Archaeologists believe that particularly in Ohio, the Hopewellian Indians probably were responsible for some of the walls, but the identity is not known. These walls represent a major accomplishment for a people who had only primitive digging implements and methods of carrying or moving heavy stones. These unknown builders piled rock completely across summits, leaving inside enclosures sometimes as large as 50 acres, depending upon the size of the bluff.
The War Bluff Stone Fort in Southern Illinois lies between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.



The War Bluff Stone Fort site is in east-central Pope County, about six and one half miles due north of Golconda and about four and one half miles northwest of the Ohio River. It is about a mile and one-half east of the old village of Raum and about two miles southwest of the old village of Lusk. This fort site lies about one-half mile south of Farm Road 858, across a field, and up the bluff. 

War Bluff is about the most interesting one of its kind. Its wall, though toppled somewhat, is the best-preserved, and its area is large enough to give the visitor's imagination room to dream. There are fragments of records and a stock of legends, lore, and tradition to add interest. 

According to traditional accounts, this was a place to which the Indians retreated and were besieged by white men about 1800. According to the same story, the Indians escaped by way of a secret crevice that led downward through the rocks and out at the face of the bluff. The story relates that a white girl who lived with them led their escape. 

War Bluff also has its "Lovers Leap" on the northwest wall, along with the traditional story. According to this bit of legend, an Indian chief forbade his daughter's marriage to the brave she loved. She and her lover sought to escape but were overtaken at the highest point of the wall. Here their final plea was rejected. Thereupon they turned clasped hands and leaped to their death a hundred feet below. True or untrue, as one stands and looks, it is a good story. 

Then there is an account of buried treasure. According to a story told by an elderly man who grew up near the fort, a band of Indians led by a squaw came to dig for the treasured bars of gold shortly after 1900 and camped at his father's place. The map they carried showed a cave, the mouth of which had been filled. This entrance was found, cleaned out, and followed to a carving indicated on the map. Likewise, they dug through rubble-filled passages to a second marking. Here, squeezed and closed passages brought confusion. The gold bars were not found. 

The Indians despaired and returned to Oklahoma, leaving any treasure still buried at War Bluff. Later visitors with divining rods have likewise failed to locate the gold. Even yet, some visitors knowing the story keep a sharp lookout for any clue that might reveal the location of the hidden bars. 

A shelter cave on the west side also has its story. Once it was carefully walled and served as a home for the Sheridan family. Here their son, Thomas, was born. He later served as a county superintendent of schools and became a practicing attorney in Vienna, Johnson County. 

Before leaving War Bluff the visitor should pause to look carefully at the stone ruins outside the wall. Perhaps he can decide the use to which they were put. Some have said they were granaries, others that they were sentry posts. One explains that they were advance posts for besiegers and lastly that they mark the burial place of white men killed while besieging the Indians. Perhaps the reader will come up with a better explanation than either of these. 

The 1876 atlas shows an additional, old Indian fort on a line five miles northwest of War Bluff and Eight miles Southeast of Stone Fort.
War Bluff Stone Fort
Shawnee National Forest, Illinois

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Sunday, February 28, 2021

The Prehistoric Old Stone Fort, Saline County, Illinois.

The Stone Forts of Illinois.
One of the unique prehistoric phenomena of Southern Illinois is the ruins of stone walls which have traditionally been known as "stone forts." They appear in the rough east-west alignment across the hill country and appear to form a broken chain between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. These ruins have similar geographic site characteristics. They are generally located on bluffs, which are often finger-like promontories of land with steep cliffs on three sides and a gradual incline on the fourth. It was across these inclines leading to the top of the bluff that these stone walls are most generally located, hence the theory of a pound or game trap, has been advanced.

Many of the walls have long been torn down and removed for building purposes. Early settlers, in most instances, removed the better slab-like stones for building foundations, leaving only the rubble. These early white pioneers saw the walls and thought of them in terms of their own experiences, particularly from the standpoint of defense against the Indians. Though they called them stone forts, these sites would be very poor places to carry on prolonged fights.

If a small band took refuge behind the wall, they might be pushed over the cliff by a larger attacking force. Or a larger force could lay siege to the place, and the band would be cut off from both food and water and soon starve to death. Although they called them "forts," many people did not accept such a theory, and speculation continued.

Archaeologists believe that particularly in Ohio, the Hopewellian Indians probably were responsible for some of the walls, but the identity is not known. These walls represent a major accomplishment for a people who had only primitive digging implements and methods of carrying or moving heavy stones. These unknown builders piled rock completely across summits, leaving inside enclosures sometimes as large as 50 acres, depending upon the size of the bluff.
The Old Stone Fort in Southern Illinois lies between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.




Another fort built almost exactly as the Makanda Fort is the fort that lies southwest of Carrier Mills in Saline County. The old fort site is found four miles east of the present town of Stonefort in Williamson County and seven miles east of Creal Springs, Illinois. Its area is almost the same as Makanda's Fort and research into the Archivo General de Indias at Seville, Spain (the repository of extremely valuable archival documents illustrating the history of the Spanish Empire in the Americas) shows that such a fort was spoken of by DeSoto in 1542. 


This old fort is on top of a hill, which is almost inaccessible. The walls are constructed of large stones and the whole reminds one of the ruins of a once well-constructed fortification. It has gone to ruin more or less within the past one or two years. The first house in the vicinity was one built in 1831 by J. Robinson. The village of Stonefort is situated atop a ridge that rises above the South Fork Saline River valley to the north and the Little Saline River valley to the south. The village of Stonefort was established in late 1858 and was originally located about a mile to the southeast, near the edge of the bluff. There were houses there earlier. 
Some scholarly visitor named the ruins Cyclop Walls, but most people simply call it old Stone Fort.


When the Cairo and Vincennes Railroad was completed through the area in the 1870s, Stonefort's public buildings were dismantled and moved to the village's present location, which was adjacent to the railroad tracks. The former site of the village is now listed as "Oldtown" on maps which is 1.8 miles northwest of Stonefort.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Saturday, February 27, 2021

The Prehistoric Makanda Stone Fort, Jackson County, Illinois.

The Stone Forts of Illinois.
One of the unique prehistoric phenomena of Southern Illinois is the ruins of stone walls which have traditionally been known as "stone forts." They appear in the rough east-west alignment across the hill country and appear to form a broken chain between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. These ruins have similar geographic site characteristics. They are generally located on bluffs, which are often finger-like promontories of land with steep cliffs on three sides and a gradual incline on the fourth. It was across these inclines leading to the top of the bluff that these stone walls are most generally located, hence the theory of a pound or game trap, has been advanced.

Many of the walls have long been torn down and removed for building purposes. Early settlers, in most instances, removed the better slab-like stones for building foundations, leaving only the rubble. These early white pioneers saw the walls and thought of them in terms of their own experiences, particularly from the standpoint of defense against the Indians. Though they called them stone forts, these sites would be very poor places to carry on prolonged fights.

If a small band took refuge behind the wall, they might be pushed over the cliff by a larger attacking force. Or a larger force could lay siege to the place, and the band would be cut off from both food and water and soon starve to death. Although they called them "forts," many people did not accept such a theory, and speculation continued.

Archaeologists believe that particularly in Ohio, the Hopewellian Indians probably were responsible for some of the walls, but the identity is not known. These walls represent a major accomplishment for a people who had only primitive digging implements and methods of carrying or moving heavy stones. These unknown builders piled rock completely across summits, leaving inside enclosures sometimes as large as 50 acres, depending upon the size of the bluff.
The Makanda Township Stone Fort in Southern Illinois lies between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.











The Makanda Stone Fort is a quarter of a mile northeast of the village of Makanda, Jackson County, Illinois, and is a part of Giant City State Park.

About 1000 years ago, when Indian cultures were enjoying the area’s abundant resources (water, wildlife, nuts, berries, and roots) in the Shawnee National Forest, a stone fort was found. It is thought to have been built during the Late Woodland Period (1000 BC - 1000 AD), probably between 600 to 900 AD. 
A Shawnee National Forest Overlook.
These prehistoric forts were constructed on a raised mass of land known as a promontory (a point of high land that juts out into a large body of water), while some others were built on hilltops that provided an excellent overlook giving them a vantage point to see for miles across Illinois' premier forest.

The massive stone wall was at one time 285 feet long, six feet high, and nine feet thick on 1.4 acres of land. The appearance of a “stone fort” or stone wall located in Giant City State Park, which is part of the Shawnee National Forest, sits atop a sloped ridge
There are actually about ten of these old structures in the southern Illinois area, and they are believed to have been either a military fortification as a meeting place or a ceremonial temple.

Most of these sites were not habitation sites (villages) in the usual sense. There was only a modest amount of artifacts, which is common among places of sporadic use for short periods of time. Debris found on this site includes sherds of grit or grog-tempered cord-marked pottery and stone tools, like projectile points. Many Late Woodland tribes lived in large, intensively occupied villages located near major rivers and streams such as Cahokia and East St. Louis. They had a mixed economy of hunting, gathering, and cultivated a series of native plants like barley, sumpweed, maygrass, and squash.
For years archaeologists have wondered about the stone fort’s usage. Some say that these were “sacred spaces” reserved for periodic activity. Archaeological digs have located items that prove that the Indians of Southern Illinois were part of an extensive trading network. They believe the trading network followed the trails in Southern Illinois that became the early pioneer roads centuries later. Archaeologists suggest the possibility that stone forts were designated areas where different tribes or sub-tribes could meet, socialize, and trade on neutral ground.

The original wall was dismantled by European settlers, who used the stones in order to build their own structures; the stone base is all that remains of the original wall. It was reconstructed in 1934 by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corp) workforce gathered the scattered stone and rebuilt the wall in its original location, but has since fallen into ruins again.
The location of this wall leads one to believe it was built for a fortification of some kind and as the building must have required a great deal of time and labor. It was surely built for more than just temporary use. The distance to the edge of the bluff in front is over 500 feet, thus affording room for quite a party taking refuge therein. The bluffs that form three sides of the enclosures are unscalable without the use of ropes and ladders except in two places, and these are easily protected from above for they are just narrow crevices up which one could, with difficulty, climb and then only by the aid of the jagged edges of the protruding rocks. One man could lie behind boulders at either place and easily protect it against a number of his enemies with crude stone-age weapons, traces of which were found everywhere in the vicinity and all through this section. Several pieces of flint and arrowheads have been picked up on the top of the bluff. 

Another reason for believing that this fortification was built as a defense against tribesmen is that it is at the upper end of the valley where the opposite bluff is not over 200 yards distant, and is higher, though not so precipitous. From this bluff, one with a rifle could easily shoot into the fort, but with bows and arrows, very little damage could be done. In fact, it is by far the best location in the valley. Water is easily accessible and flows from a little stream within 100 feet of the cliff where it is scalable and at several places in the brooks are springs. 

Ancient features more closely related to a seasonal hunting camp where hunters would take advantage of game resources, then move on.

Other theories included the notion it was actually early European explorers, such as DeSoto, who created the rock fortresses while making inroads to conquer the land. No such evidence of European construction exists, of course.

The oldest settlers in Jackson County say that the area was covered with bushes when they first came here. No one knows the early history of the fort as a certainty and there is little likelihood of it ever coming to light. Parts of the wall of this fort were standing as late as 1870 and were torn down by a Doctor CalIon in hunting for relics. None were found which is more strong evidence that the fort was built by someone other than Indians. George W. Owens, still living in 1931, who came to Makanda in 1862, tells of a small, one-pounder cannon that was found in the wall of the old fort. It was used in Fourth-of-July celebrations around Makanda for 50 years and finally sold to a junk dealer. The French Lieutenant Aubrey, passed this way from Kaskaskia in 1720 with 30 French and 300 Indians on his way to Fort Massac on the Ohio River to thwart the English, who were reported to be on their way down the Ohio River toward Kaskaskia. Aubrey had three brass cannons of this description. This may have been one of them. 
The first professional archaeological investigation of the fort site was conducted in 1956 by archaeologists from Southern Illinois University. An explanation for the large hole in the front of the wall is unknown, although it most likely represents the work of treasure hunters. The hole was there when the site was officially recorded as an archaeological site in 1956.
In the fall of 2000, archaeologists from Southern Illinois University Carbondale conducted an investigation of the Stone Fort site. Of the 153 shovel tests executed south of the wall, all were positive for prehistoric artifacts. This led the scientists to nominate Giant City’s Stone Fort for the National Register of Historic Places. The Giant City Stone Fort Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 9, 2002
The Stone Fort Trail in Giant City State Park is a little-known path that leads to some truly intriguing ruins. It is less than half a mile in length and is a loop trail.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.